The Brightholt Chronicles
by Origm2012
Summary: An affluent town on the West coast of Fiore is home to 3 guilds. They'll compete for incoming recruits. Protect Brightholt City from danger. And battle against one another for dominance. An SYOC story
1. Brightholt City

**October 13, X791, 12:00 P.M, Alliance Hall**

Jade looked around at the other two guild masters.

To his right was Narissa Ash, master of the Scarlet Phantoms. She had wrapped herself in a light red shawl that hid most of her features, but a keen eye could tell she was well endowed and possessed a firm figure for a women just shy of forty. With only her head exposed, her dark green eyes and auburn colored hair contrasted each other magnificently. Her lack of wrinkles and near porcelain skin contributed to the illusion that she was far younger than she actually was. Her long hair flowed freely about her shoulders. From afar, she was a vision of red and you could get lost in her eyes if it weren't for her voice. She spoke in a semi-regal, blunt tone. Narissa's incessant talking always came off as lecturing, so it was easy to get lost in your own thoughts once these meetings began.

Jade looked to his left now.

A very short man clad in black and blue striped pajamas sat cross legged in his seat. The bald man-child had fallen asleep. Peeking out from behind his shirt's collar, you could see the guild mark of their famous knight stamp. If you listened carefully, you could hear him lightly snoring between breaths. He was clearly the oldest of the three of them, but often behaved the most carefree and childlike.

Jade thought carefully about what course of action would be the most entertaining. Should he wake Master Seigfried or tell Narissa that her words were falling on deaf ears. Just as she finished what seemed to be an important point, Jade chimed in as convincingly as possible "I agree entirely. Don't you Roy?" he said turning to Master Seigfried.

Startled at the sound of his name, Seigfried jumped from his seat to a combative stance on the round table they had been sitting around. Narissa finally caught on to Seigfried's antics and as the two began to bicker, Jade slipped away from his seat to the window. He looked out from the floating headquarters they were currently in. Beneath him lay the place they called home. Brightholt City. Their three guilds all resided in this City. Its sheer size had prompted the mayor to invite mages to start guilds here. He hadn't thought about the possibility of three famous mages all coming here and requesting to start a guild. So when they all provided adequate plans for respective guilds, he accepted all of them. The first few months were rocky. They would fight over everything; Recruits entering the city, job requests and at times even territory in the city. This is why they would have these meetings. They used anti-gravity lacrima to suspend the guild masters' meeting place in the sky above the city. This way they could watch over their city and have their meetings. They allowed all three guild masters to come to an understanding, build relations with one another and even create a fearsome and aptly named alliance, the Brightholt alliance. To dark guilds and legal guilds, they were collectively frightening. To each other, they were constantly locked in an unspoken competition for supremacy in Brightholt. These meetings had changed everything.

An eruption of joy from beneath them snapped Jade from his thoughts. "Well, almost everything." He said aloud to Seigfried and Narissa who seemed to be locked in a fierce wrestling match of some sort. He smiled and jumped from the window. "Good luck!" he called to his fellow guild masters as he descended and they finally caught on. That sound meant that someone with magical potential had entered their town.

The guild masters had come to an understanding. They would be at peace with one another. Help one another. Even share with one another. And outside of friendly competitions, they would be as neighborly as possible. But all gloves went off when it came to recruitment. They knew that recruiting was the key to usurping the Brightholt title of most powerful guild. With the Scarlet Phantoms in first and Master Seigfried's Eternal knights in second, Jade knew he had to recruit someone powerful to pull his guild from last. The ground broke beneath him as he landed. And he stood unfazed. He was positive that this recruit would be the one that would bring Nova Eos the fame it deserved.

* * *

><p><strong>October 13, X791, 11:30 A.M, 5 miles east of Brightholt<strong>

"I'm so tired" Adrienne yelled to no one. She had lost her money in the last town and couldn't afford the train ticket to Brightholt. So for lack of a better mode of transportation, she was walking there. She had been walking for the better part of two days and still hadn't gotten there. And now she was aimlessly walking through a forest. The directions she had made it seem like Brightholt City was only a day away. She stopped walking and thought aloud to herself. "Nope, I can't get down. Brightholt has got to be near and once I'm there, I'll finally become a Scarlet Phantom." She burst off in a sprint and very slowly the forest became less and less thick until it opened out into a brightly lit clearing.

The sun had dispatched any shadows in the slight clearing. The warm glow added a shiny hue to her waist length jet black hair. Watching from afar would cause one to mistake her face for that of an enchantress. Her complexion was snow white and seemed to look even lovelier in the sun. But the illusion would be shattered by her choice of wardrobe. She was no princess. Her long black baggy pants settled low on her hips and she wore a single layered long sleeved shirt that was red in support of her favorite guild. It had a very modest neck line allowing a small peak at her frame. She carried a small white backpack with her belongings.

Adrienne took a moment to catch her breath in the clearing. Without the forest looming over her, she could see a building floating in the air. She squealed in excitement and sprinted off again into the forest. This time, her excitement got the better of her and she activated a spell allowing her to run at unimaginable speeds. She focused her magic into her feet and then tripled her speed. As she got closer and closer to the floating building, the forest thinned out and a path revealed itself. With her eyes fixed on the floating building in the distance, she didn't realize when she had reached the city and burst onto a crimson cobblestone path. The stones cause her to lose her footing and she was sent tumbling into a nearby building. Her speed sent her flying through the walls until she finally came to a stop.

She sat up. She knew she had reached Brightholt City. But as she shook off her dizziness, she took in the scene around her. She had broken through three walls and tumbled out into a town square of some sort. She jumped to her feet immediately and with tears in her eyes began apologizing to any person whose gaze she could meet. She thought to herself. _Great, I'm only here thirty seconds and my dream is over. No one is gonna want me in their guild now._ Just as her tears were about to fall, the town erupted into a celebration. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Everyone was laughing and dancing and shaking her hand and welcoming her to the town. She could hear people asking through the crowd, "If she was here to join a guild?" and asking her which guild she was going to join. She didn't know how to respond or who to respond to, the chaos around her was too confusing. Adrienne was grateful when a loud voice resounded through the city and beckoned them to quiet down.

She looked around for the source of the voice and saw a short man floating in the air. If it wasn't for his aged appearance, she would have been sure he was a child. He floated in the air and sat cross legged.

He looked down at the young girl and smiled to her. "Hello, young lady, what's your name?"

Before she could answer, there was a loud noise. To her left, she heard more and more commotion.

"Move. Move. Move you idiots" exclaimed one man in the crowd. This was followed by several townspeople sent flying away. Pushing his way to the front was a rather tall muscular man dressed in Green open collared shirt and white pants. He had a long black pony tail that went down to his back and was held tightly together by several rubber bands. He seemed nice enough, but fiercely made his way over to the old man.

Before he could speak, the old man greeted him. "Nice of you to join us Jade."

Adrienne was at a loss for words. The name registered instantly. This man was the famed Earth master of Nova Eos.

"You cheated Seigfried. There's no magic allowed in recruitment."

Adrienne was beside herself now. She had been in the city for a few minutes and already two guild masters were before her.

The old man seemed to barely register Master Jade's words. "Oh, did we agree on that?" Seigfried replied absent mindedly. "I must have forgotten. You know I'm getting old." He said with a grin. All the while his eyes fixated on the girl in front of him.

"My name is Adrienne" the young girl finally replied. "I decided to join a guild after my 17th birthday. So I've been traveling here for the last few months."

The old man's eyes brightened at her short story, but before he could respond or Jade could get his two cents in, a woman's voice commanded the townspeople to move aside.

"Make way for Mistress Ash" it proclaimed. The river of people parted and down its path, a woman dressed in black and red holding a clip board announced the arrival of her mistress. The assistant turned to Adrienne. With an air of nobility and monotony in her voice, she said "Good day miss…" She waited for Adrienne to give her name before resuming. "Miss Adrienne, our lady would like to welcome you to Brightholt City." She said gesturing to the members of the crowd in red and to the woman who could be none other than Adrienne's idol, Narissa Ash.

Adrienne hadn't noticed it, but the crowd had slowly been dyed a mixture of Red, Green and White, and Blue and Black.

The assistant cut straight to the chase. "I am Madeline Sable, the head of recruitment for the Scarlet Phantoms. We would like to know your magic before you join us."

Adrienne was taken aback. A moment ago, she was sure she would be kicked out of Brightholt and now her dream was moments from coming true.

"Now, hold on a moment." Master Jade cut in. "She hasn't said that she wishes to join you all." He nodded to Adrienne now. "Adrienne has said that she is looking for a guild to join. So, it could be anyone of us."

Madeline looked confused. "Is there some reason she wouldn't join the strongest guild this side of Fiore." She retorted.

Adrienne snapped back to reality. Her idols had asked her a question and she hadn't answered yet. "I use speed magic."

As if her response to Madeline held all the answers Jade needed, he hung his head in defeat.

Seigfried, who had been quiet, nodded in admiration of Adrienne.

Adrienne smiled happily; this was the moment that she had been waiting for. She would finally become a Phantom.

"We don't need her" said Narissa finally speaking. Adrienne's world shattered. "Our guild is the strongest, because we only take the strongest." Narissa added condescendingly. "The scarlet Phantom's already have someone amongst their numbers who is well versed in speed magic." Turning away from the crowd, she departed back up the same pathway that had been cleared for her. "Here, one of you can have her." She said to Seigfried and Jade.

Adrienne stood there frozen. How could her idol be so cruel?

Jade could see the defeat in the young girl's eyes before him, but he didn't know what he could say to comfort her.

Seigfried landed in front of Adrienne. "Listen, child." He said tilting her head down to face him. "Narissa is under the impression, that only the magic people use is unique. I've been around a long time and I know that it's the mages who make a magic unique."

Jade finally understanding what needed to be said chimed in now. "Narissa is powerful, but her desire for dominance has blinded her to what's really important. Make no mistake, she cares for her guild. But she has forgotten that a guild is a family first and foremost." They renewed Adrienne's hope. "If you're still willing, then we of Nova Eos, would be honored to have you." Added Jade.

Seigfreid was grinning proudly at Jade. "You've grown quite a lot Jade. Even I'm proud of you my old friend."

Jade looked down at his friend and tried his best to hide the pride that the compliment gave him.

"I think I've made up my mind" said Adrienne. A hush ran over the town as everyone awaited her answer. "I will join the Eternal Knights."

Half of the crowd erupted in cheer and even Jade maintained his composure. Several mages rushed forward and hoisted Adrienne onto their shoulders and ushered her from the town square to their part of town.

* * *

><p><strong>October 13, X791, 12:30 P.M, Eternal Knight's Headquarters<strong>

The crowd let Adrienne down outside the guild hall. Master Seigfried floated overhead and landed in front of the building. The building's three floors could be seen clear from outside. It was mostly a dark blue and with black trim on all of the edges. "We know, you weren't your first choice, but we're very glad to have you here with us." Master Seigfried said.

Adrienne finally realized how her presence might have made everyone feel. "I came here with the intention of joining the Scarlet Phantoms." She turned to the crowd of mages around her now. "But, after meeting everyone and knowing what I know now. There's no place I'd rather be." The crowd of mages burst into cheers once more and escorted her into the building.

The inside had a similar color scheme. The blue and black trim was along every wall and the banisters and columns were all a dark blue color. At the side opposite the front door was a bar. Towards the center of the guild one could see the mages hanging around at several tables and what looked like bedrooms on the higher floors. She couldn't see the highest floor and when Master Seigfried caught her craning her neck. He explained that it's the S-Class floor. He also went on to point out several other building peculiarities.

"The bedrooms are on the second floor, you may need one of those and that's the bar over there and my office is right next to it." He had been very calm and understanding earlier, but now he was like an excited child at a toy store.

She would chime in from time to time with a question. Something like "Are new recruits usually welcomed like this?" Or "why is recruitment such a big deal for ordinary citizens?"

Master Seigfried explained that the town held a quarterly tri-guild tournament with different rules every quarter. That just ended a few days ago, so many mages still lingered in their guild halls before taking on any more jobs. He explained how the presence of guilds in this town had expanded the already affluent Brightholt City to unimaginable riches. Not to mention, the entertainment the guilds provided. As he talked, more and more members came up to her and welcomed her to the guild. She felt at Peace. This was her new home.

"Outside" he pointed to the back door" is the where the training grounds are located. "You'll be able to get plenty of speed training in out there."

Before he could continue, Adrienne pulled a sword hilt out of her backpack. "Where can I practice with Ares?" she said as a short blade materialized from the hilt.

Master Seigfried stopped in his tracks. His old age had brought him plenty of experience. He recognized the design on the weapon immediately. "Where did you get a blood pact artifact Adrienne?" He spoke evenly. His demeanor had shifted to an almost ominous state.

But in an equally happy mood, Adrienne replied "My father left it for when he passed away."

Master Seigfried breathed a sigh of relief. His happy mood slowly returned. "You should know that owners of weapons like that have usually murdered the previous owner. I'm glad that's not the case. Every guild in Brightholt has its own moral code. The Scarlet Phantoms treasure strength above all else. The Nova Eos are kind, considerate mages who aren't afraid to cause mayhem if they need to." He acknowledged Adrienne's confused expression. "They are a very paradoxical guild." He continued walking along side Adrienne as they approached the bar. "Knights always have something to protect and a code to honor. We, Eternal Knights have sworn by a code to never end a human life and to protect the lives of those around us til our last breaths. If you had obtained that weapon by its usual method of transference, I couldn't let you join us." He grabbed a few forms from the bar maid and the guild stamp and asked her for the first time "Would you like to join the Eternal Knights?"

Adrienne smiled happily. "Yes, master Seigfried. Could you make the stamp red?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

I don't own Fairy Tail, but the original ideas I have are mine.

Thanks for reading the story, it means a lot.

A special thanks to Raiyane for Beta reading this story.

Also I'm very open to criticism, so feel free to tell me when something wasn't described in detail or when an idea wasn't clear.

I need OCs, so if you're interested P.M. me. I'll have a form on my profile page.

The story WILL follow all three guilds and its members, so feel free to send OCs to any guild of your choosing. But as a personal request, try not to have more than two OCs. With that said, if the character is good, I'll gladly include all submissions.

I'd love for this story to be highly interactive, so I may have polls to help decide a certain course of events or things of that nature without giving away too much of the story.

No character is made perfect. I'm a firm believer in training scenes and scenes where a character grows in strength or obtains power that they have no means of controlling at first, so this will also happen from time to time.

I love Fairy Tail as much as all of you, but I will never "Nakama Power" away a bad guy. It's the most blatant Deus Ex Machina ever written and as much as I love Fairy Tail, please try not to include it in your OCs background.

I'm a huge fan of magical artifacts and tournaments so don't be surprised to see something about one of these two things from time to time.

I plan to explain Ares and every other magical artifact I introduce.

Thanks for reading again. See you next chapter.


	2. The Coliseum

**Author's Note:**

Hello everyone. Hope you're enjoying the story so far.

I'll be trying to incorporate certain ideas and elements that have fallen by the wayside in Fairy Tail.

An OC submission recently brought to light how vague I was about this.

Attack: (X/100)

Defense: (X/100)

Speed: (X/100)

Magic Reserves: (X/100)

So the first three have been pretty straight forward, but the last one has confused some people. "Magic Reserves" is meant to be an indicator of how much magical energy they have to expend on spells, summonings, take-overs, or any other type of magic. Having it on 0-100 scale might have made it vague and I apologize, but as I said it doesn't have a final say on fights and no your character won't keel over in the middle of a fight if I think they've reached their limit.

I'm sure you're tired of hearing from me, here we go.

* * *

><p>October 14, X791, 10:00 A.M, Eternal Knights Guild<p>

Adrienne awoke to the sun beaming in through her window. She hadn't considered where she would stay once she got to Brightholt so she was glad that Master Seigfried offered her a room in the guild hall. She sat up in bed and squinted as her eyes adjusted to the light. She was in the middle of a yawn when she realized someone was in the room. She recognized the girl before her instantly.

"Madeline!?" she yelled out in confusion while jumping from her bed to her backpack across the room to grab her sword.

"No, no, no!" The girl frantically called out to Adrienne. "I'm not Madeline. I'm Alice."

Adrienne stood on one side of the room with her sword drawn. Madeline hadn't done anything to warrant this reaction, but Master Siegfried's explanation of the Scarlet Phantom's indifference to killing people had put her on edge.

The young girl stood on one side of the room with a note in her hand addressed to Adrienne. Alice took the brief moment of calm to explain why she was in the room to begin with. "The master has given me the task of showing you around town. He wrote this note explaining everything." She spoke as evenly as possible. She dropped the note on the bed between the two of them and with her sword still raised; Adrienne picked it up and read it aloud.

"'Dear Adrienne,

I have some business to take care of. I've asked Alice to look out for you today and if you're willing, she'll show you around town. Try and get along today. Have fun.

Best,

Roy Seigfried',"

Adrienne finished the letter and looked back at the girl named Alice. She had been certain she was Madeline. They were both a little shorter than Adrienne and both had short red hair that they wore in a high ponytail. While Madeline wore glasses and a secretary outfit and this girl simply wore baggy blue pants and a black tank top, they had the same face. Both had blue eyes, a light complexion and rosy cheeks. "But why do you look like Madeline from Scarlet Phantom?"

Alice perked up immediately. She was glad the girl in front of her finally realized that she wasn't Madeline. "Madeline is my twin sister." she said in a matter of fact voice.

Adrienne sheathed Ares immediately. "I'm so sorry, I thought you were Madeline. I had no idea she had a twin!" Adrienne frantically apologized. She wanted to get along with her guild mates and here she was pointing a sword at one first thing in the morning.

Alice laughed at this new Adrienne. "A moment ago, you had a sword ready to fight me and now you look like you feel so bad you might cry. Don't worry about it; I know my sister's not the best person in the world. But, mind me asking what she did to you already?"

Adrienne thought long and hard again. Then she hung her head in shame. "Nothing really" she choked out. "The master was telling me about the different codes among the guilds and…"

Alice raised her hand as if that was a sufficient explanation. "I get it. My sister is a piece of work and she can be really cruel when she wants. And yeah, she lives by the Phantom code. So don't even worry about it. How about, we go and get some breakfast at my favorite restaurant in the square? My treat."

Adrienne's entire attitude changed. She shook her head like a child being asked if they wanted to go to the toy store.

"Great, you get dressed and I'll meet you outside" Alice added before leaving the room.

* * *

><p>October 14, X791, 11:00 A.M, Outside Eternal Knights Guild<p>

Alice and Adrienne left the guild and headed towards the town square. "They've got the best pancakes in the square" Alice said as they walked away from the guild. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but it's better than all of the Eternal Knight restaurants." She added in playfully. She was skipping alongside Adrienne until they stopped for a drink of water near the center of Eternal Knight Territory.

"What do you mean by 'Eternal Knight' Restaurants?" Adrienne asked. Alice looked confused. "You joined a Brightholt Guild, but don't know about the different territories.

"I knew there were three guilds in Brightholt City, but I had no idea about all the tension between the guilds."

Alice burst into laughter. She was struggling to get words out in between laughter and gasps of air. "This is the best it's been in years. In the beginning, mages from all guilds would get in brawls over the simplest things."

They continued walking to the square now. "Look around, this part of the City all supports the Eternal Knights. It's the same in the areas surrounding Nova Eos and the Scarlet Phantoms. See, the Brightholt citizens loved having guilds in the City, but we soon became more trouble than we were worth. The fights would often result in the city being damaged and the guilds all in shambles."

Adrienne looked around at the different buildings they passed. A lot of them had simple brick designs, while others had more elaborate wood work. Alice made a point to always point out an area of the town that had previously been destroyed. But, it was just as she said. All the buildings and street vendors either had a blue tint or they had the guild flag hanging somewhere in their building.

"The mayor didn't want to get rid of the guilds, so he and the guild masters came to an agreement," Alice continued. "The first meeting was held in Alliance Hall" she said, pointing to the build that hovered above the city. As they walked, Alice and Adrienne got closer to the square and Alice pointed to a large dome shaped building to their right. It was dressed in all of the guilds' colors and was massive in size. She continued her speech now. "They began holding competitions in the coliseum to let mages practice actual combat and so that they could release stress. The mayor got the citizens involved and soon the city became divided like this; where each guild's supporters opened several different types of businesses in order to support their favorite mages and guilds. We in turn provide services for the people. Most jobs are open to all three guilds, but some are guild specific. Just like some businesses charge next to nothing to their favorite guilds, but might charge a crazy price for a different guild."

They stopped once they had officially stepped foot in the square. In the craziness of recruitment the day before, Adrienne hadn't been able to take a look around the square. It was amazing. The entire square was made out of cobblestone. Buildings and walkways alike had no expense spared in their designs. The square was colored a light beige color. To her right there was the coliseum, to her left was a pathway that slowly became greener and greener in the distance and just across the square was a path that had an eloquent crimson gateway.

When Alice was sure that Adrienne understood what she meant, she concluded their trip and her explanation by walking towards her favorite restaurant, Magdalena's. She opened the door for Adrienne and said in her most matter of fact tone "The whole square is neutral ground. So all mages get a fair chance at all the goods sold here before we head out for a job or head to the coliseum.

* * *

><p>October 14, X791, 12:00 P.M, Magdalena's<p>

Adrienne followed Alice into the restaurant. The outside had a similar cobblestone design to other buildings, but the inside had dark purple décor. The counters by the bar were cobblestone and the bar stools had a purple cushion with a stainless steel structure.

"We'll sit by my usual seat Maggy." Alice called out to the lady behind the counter.

She had long curly purple hair that was a shade lighter than the building. Her face was thin, but rounded out into her chin. Her tan skin had small beauty marks here and there. She was young and vibrant; something that was accentuated by her happy personality. As they walked to the semi-circle corner booth, they heard "No problem Alice" come from the bar.

They scooted into the booth and a waiter came by a few moments later. He had his hair combed over and wore glasses. But his most distinguishable feature was his absurd height. He had to duck under door ways to go from room to room.

In a monstrously deep voice he said "Good day everyone. My name is Frank, I'll be your waiter today."

Alice answered quickly for the both of them. "We'll both have an order of pancakes." Then turning to Adrienne she said "Trust me, you won't be disappointed." Both girls turned to see Frank staring blankly towards them.

"And you?" Frank asked blandly.

Alice turned her face to Adrienne in an attempt to see if she knew what was going on. "Frank?" Alice started. "We both want…" but she was cut off by Frank's immediate departure.

Alice laughed it off. She wasn't sure what was wrong with Frank, but she was too excited about the pancakes to care. "Oh, these pancakes are perfect Adrienne." She said trying to pull focus back to the food.

Alice's comment snapped her out of confusion and brought her back to her jovial mood from before. Adrienne was happy that she had already met someone so nice. Back home she usually helped her sick father and didn't have time for friends, so when he passed away she was alone.

"I'm glad I met you, Alice" she said bringing herself back from her thoughts. "It's crazy how you and your sister are so different, but look so much alike"

Alice's expression went from ecstatic to depressed almost instantly. She knew how cruel her sister could be, but it hurt a little to hear someone else talk about her. And this was someone who she was sure hadn't see Madeline at her worst.

A quick glance at Alice's face told Adrienne she had gone too far. "I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. It's just." She stopped talking in an attempt to search her brain for an appropriate means of telling her new friend that her twin sister was just about the coldest person she had ever met, minus Master Narissa.

"It's fine," said Alice.

Adrienne didn't want to pry, but there was one thing she couldn't let go. It seemed like Alice loved her sister, so why wasn't she in the Scarlet Phantoms.

As if Alice could read minds, she asked "You wanna know why we're in separate guilds?" Embarrassed at having been such an open book, Adrienne attempted to dissuade Alice from sharing her story. But Alice stopped her and began the explanation.

"My sister and I love each other very much. But we have a different view on the world. We initially couldn't bear to be apart from each other. But we had a strange childhood and began to disagree on a lot of things. Brightholt City saved us from one another. I can only imagine how we would have stifled each other in our differences. As I'm sure you've seen, my sister can be very cold and condescending. The only person who seems to have her respect is Master Narissa. But our greatest difference is what made us choose between the Eternal Knights and the Scarlet Phantoms." Alice stopped now, took a breath and continued. "She's killed people and I could never do that."

Realizing the shock on Adrienne's face, she laughed and quickly added. "She doesn't go around murdering people, but dark mages, she has no problem killing them. I can't do that and so we tend to argue about that whenever we see one another."

Adrienne was sorry for her friend, but didn't know how to comfort her. "I couldn't do it either," was all she could get out.

Luckily, their food came out at the same time. The waiter carried out both plates of pancakes on an obnoxiously large platter used for much larger parties. He handed them their meal and told them not to hesitate to ask for anything.

They were laughing and joking again, when Alice caught sight of a tall masked man entering the restaurant. The mask had a red smile and red frowning eyes for its face. The owner of the mask clearly had neon blue hair that just barely escaped from behind the mask. Despite his height he had a leaner build which retained muscles forged by hours of rigorous training. Adrienne was in the midst of making a joke about him to Alice, when she turned to see Alice under the table.

"What are you doing down there Alice?" She asked.

"Hide, we really don't want to have to deal with him" said Alice.

When she realized that Adrienne hadn't responded or hidden, she peeked over from her side of the semi-circle booth and saw the man sitting between her and Adrienne. He had his arm around Adrienne's shoulder, with a small dagger pointed at her throat.

"We were having such a wonderful meal. Won't you come up from under the table Alice?" He asked, his voice was cool and laced with sarcasm.

"Alice, what's happening?" Adrienne said as a drop of blood dripped out onto the knife from where the knife was pressed to her neck.

"How long have you been here Rosca?!" Alice furiously demanded.

"Calm down Alice, you're making a scene. I'm not quite sure what you mean. Didn't we all come in to eat together?" He said as the mouth on his mask magically twisted to a sly grin.

In an instant, Alice understood what had been happening; Frank asking for them for their order twice and then serving them with the large platter despite there only being two of them.

"Then what about the 'you' over there…"Adrienne tried to ask before she was interrupted by Rosca snapping his fingers.

The illusion of him by the bar disappeared and a meal appeared on front of him. "So you've been here our whole meal," Alice stated bluntly.

"Well, you all took forever walking here so I got hungry and had a meal also."

Alice swung a fist at him in blind rage and connected with his mask.

This shattered another illusion and revealed another Rosca sitting at the bar stool nearest to them. Realizing the mishap in his words, Rosca shook his head and acknowledged that he had been following them since they left the Eternal Knights. "I wanted to see the new recruit that had the town buzzing yesterday. I had to see if she was worth all of the fuss." Eyeing her from behind his mask now he said "I can see that she was well worth the effort. I daresay Master Narissa made a mistake in not recruiting this one. You've got more than speed magic up your sleeve, I can feel it. It's quite exciting," he said as the mask on his face turned a huge grin once more.

He slid back into the booth without notice, this time next to pulling himself within an inch of Alice's face. "You know Alice, you shouldn't be so violent. A gentle girl with your looks could get hurt by some weirdo on the streets."

Jumping up from his seat he began posing and displaying his muscles. "You should have someone strong to protect you" he said between breaths while maintaining his poses."

Adrienne couldn't believe what she was seeing. A minute ago this psychopath had a knife to her neck and now he was joking with them like old friends. Her train of thought was broken when Alice started laughing. This weirdo must be a friend of some sort she thought, but she would have to be on guard.

"What? You don't have enough time alone with my sister?" teased Alice.

Rosca ceased posing. "Your sister has no sense of humor. She's too serious all of the time." As if it was the most obvious statement. He sat back down at the table again. "She is supposed to be at the coliseum today, adding another win to her record I supposes."

The idea of a battle finally brought Adrienne back to a state of calm. She realized that Rosca must be from Scarlet Phantom and if Alice could trust him, then she could also.

Adrienne loved combat, so in an attempt to make conversation she said. "Oh, is her record really good?"

Rosca's mask changed to a coy grin. "With Kuroki's death, she's risen to number 5 in the coliseum." He jumped back over to Adrienne's side of the table now. "But I'm the strongest."

At the mention of Kuroki's name, Alice returned to the conversation. "We don't know if Kuroki is dead."

Rosca continued to talk himself up to Adrienne while ignoring Alice.

When she realized that Rosca was ignoring her she decided to strike a nerve. "And you know Rosca, the Harbinger will return."

The mood in the restaurant shifted immediately. The entire restaurant could feel the murderous rage coming from Rosca. He looked over at Alice now. "When that monster returns, I'll win!" he yelled for the whole restaurant to hear.

Adrienne shifted closer to Alice now.

He stared down the pair of them and continued his rant. "I have the first match promised and I'll be gutting that loser when it's over." Slowly, he calmed down. He had let Alice get under his skin and he'd make sure to get her back for that later. He got up to leave now. "Anyhow Adrienne, you should stop by the Coliseum later and watch me in action. I'll be looking forward to your first match."

After he left, Adrienne had a million questions, so in a preemptive attempt to settle all confusion Alice said, "That was Rosca. He's got a tendency to be a tad bit eccentric."

Adrienne's eyes widened at the word eccentric. "You think?" She said sarcastically. "So what about this guy called Kuroki?" she added.

"Kuroki is a mage in our guild, that's been missing for the last few months. His sister is also a member of the guild. You probably won't see her later at the Coliseum. She's been training non-stop for the S-class trials."

After discussing the Coliseum a bit more, Alice could tell Adrienne was excited to see what it was like. Alice also wanted to see her sister. They lived so close, but were very rarely together.

As they exited the Restaurant, the entrance to the coliseum could be seen across the square. They began the short walk to the entrance of the Coliseum.

As Adrienne thought over their breakfast with Rosca, she shuddered at the memory of his outburst. "Why did Rosca get so angry earlier?"

Alice smiled at the question. As they walked side by side up the path to the Coliseum doors, she explained who the Harbinger was. "I'm sure you've been told that Scarlet Phantom is the most powerful guild in Brightholt. Our guild, the Eternal Knights is in second place currently and Nova Eos is in third."

Adrienne nodded vigorously.

"Well" Alice continued as they passed by a severely injured Nova Eos mage being carried out of the Coliseum. He was covered in cuts and bruises. "The rankings are determined by which guild holds the most ranked positions in the coliseum. Scarlet Phantom holds six out of the top ten spots. We Eternal Knights hold three out of the top ten. Nova Eos has one spot currently."

Adrienne nodded her head understandingly. "So that means that there are only 10 S class mages in all of Brightholt City?" she half asked.

"Nope, some S classes don't participate in the Coliseum. Like The Harbinger. He's the only SS mage in Brightholt City."

"SS mage?" Adrienne quickly interjected.

"Oh right, it's not traditional for something like an SS mage to exist, but all three guild masters felt that the power gap was so large, that they should make a clear distinction. That's why we Eternal Knights aren't first."

Shocked once more Adrienne said "Wait, The Harbinger is an Eternal Knight?! Who is he?"

Alice thought for a moment. "To be honest, I have no idea. I'd imagine only the guild masters know for sure, since he rarely even participates in anything. I don't even know if 'he' is a 'he'." She thought a bit longer and added. "Oh, Kuroki and Rosca would also know. Kuroki has been missing for a while, but he was supposedly on a mission with The Harbinger. That's why I'm sure he's okay."

"But why does Rosca know then?"

"Rosca has only ever lost one match in the coliseum and that was to The Harbinger. He humored Rosca once and decimated him in a match."

As they got closer to the Coliseum Alice resumed her explanation of its inner workings. "Some mages only participate if there is a tournament with an interesting prize. But a large portion of the mages participate. There are several different types of competitions in the coliseum that way many different types of mages and spectators are catered to. However, the city offers reward money to mages who participate in the Brightholt Weekly Grand Prix. Everyone can participate, but only the mages in the top twenty spots receive reward money or a prize. You don't have to participate every week, since it's ridiculously hard to hold your position or even advance. And if you fail to abide by any of the rules, you'll be dropped down in the ranks." Alice could tell Adrienne was really excited. "You really like to fight huh?"

"Yup, I don't think there's anything like it." Said Adrienne "So how do you advance?" she quickly added.

They had finally gotten to the door of the coliseum. "I'll explain the rest after we get inside." Alice said before quickly opening the door. She opened the doors and a loud roar of cheers swept past them and drowned out any other sound. The ground shook with the excitement of the match going on. Alice pulled Adrienne inside. "Come on, I'll try and get some good seats."

The inside of the coliseum was brightly lit. The crowd was seated as high up as the rafters and as close to the 30 yard boundary line as possible. Adrienne knew the coliseum was huge from the outside, but the size was even more daunting on the inside.

"Come on" she heard Alice say. "This is the main arena; mages are allowed to get VIP seats to watch their fellow guild members fight."

They made it to the VIP seats that were close to the railing overlooking the arena. Even in VIP seats they were about 30 feet up from the ground and were at the edge of the 30 yard boundary when Adrienne asked who was fighting to which Alice replied "My sister."

* * *

><p>October 14, X791, 1:00 P.M, Coliseum Locker Room<p>

_I can beat her. I can beat her. _Jackie kept telling herself. She was psyching herself up in preparation for her match.

"Jacqueline Arison. Jacqueline Arison, please report to the challenger's lift immediately."

It was time for her match. She shook off her nerves and took one more glance at herself in the mirror of the mage's locker room beneath the arena. She wore a dark red knee length dress with slits that went as high as her upper thigh. At the top of the slit was her guild mark. It was a silver tree with energy bursting behind it. The dress had long sleeves with small black ruffles along the arm. On her chest were four identical black buttons. She gave one last tug on the both black headband that kept her collarbone length black hair in check and the matching black belt before putting on her thigh high black boots. It was time. She walked down the long, brightly lit corridor to where she knew the challenger's lift would be. The walls were a greyish blue color and save for the occasional poster of the next major tournament, they were bare. She got on the lift and heard the roar of the crowd as it activated and she was lifted into the arena. She stepped off the lift, walked over to her side of the arena and awaited her opponent.

* * *

><p>October 14, X791, 1:15 P.M, Coliseum Main Arena<p>

The crowd dulled the possibility of hearing anyone. "Wow, they're this excited and there's supposed to be another match after this." Adrienne managed to say in between the roar of the crowd.

"Nope, this is the main event. The mage we passed on the way in was the challenger." yelled back Alice.

"Really, who was his opponent?"

"I'm pretty sure it was Rosca."

Adrienne's draw dropped at the thought of the man who had been all but torn apart. But her attention was grasped by the girl in the arena.

"Won't her dress get in the way?" Adrienne struggled to yell over the crowd.

Alice turned to her friend and tried to match her volume "Nope, with her magic it …" She was cut off by an explosion of cheers from the crowd.

The floor on the opposite side of the arena opened and the lift began to rise. There was Madeline. She wasn't wearing her usual secretary outfit, but what appeared to be a Black and Red body suit that had short sleeves and went down to her knees. Her hair style remained the same and her lack of glasses made her and Alice look even more alike. She stepped off of the lift and stood on the opposite side of the arena from where Jackie was.

A voice boomed over a loud speaker. "Ok ladies, let's have a clean match. The Match type for today is 'Three Times Fallen'. The winner is decided when their opponent has been knocked to the ground three times. Referee, you may begin whenever you're ready." An announcer said.

A small orb shaped lacrima flew down to the arena and hovered between Madeline and Jackie. As the orb spoke to them, Adrienne asked about the rules and the referee.

Alice thought for a moment and then answered "Well, the rules change from time to time to keep the crowd entertained, but mages can request a special rule set if they want. The Lacrima Referee, is an unbiased ref created to determine a winner. These fights can dangerous, so a referee that can't be injured became a necessity pretty quickly. Even the spectators are protected from the fight. There is an impenetrable force field just past the railing to prevent any harm from coming to the people."

As she finished her explanation, the Referee turned to Jackie and said "Challenger, Jacqueline Arison, are you ready?" To which Jackie nodded her head. "Number 5, Madeline Sable, are you ready?" Madeline shrugged and nonchalantly said "Let's start already." With that the referee shot into the air above them and announced for the arena to hear. "You May Begin!"

Madeline burst off at great speed and aimed a fist at Jackie's gut.

Jackie dodged, sending Madeline flying past her and crashing into the wall behind her. Jackie landed in a crouched position and unleashed her magic.

As the magic finished building within her, Jackie completed the spell by calling out "Demon Soul: Aim". Her forearms became black gauntlets with her hands reforming into giant black claws. The rest of her body slowly became encased in scales and her hair grew wildly down to her waist.

Jackie knew Madeline was fast from their previous fights, but it seemed like she had gotten even faster.

A disoriented Madeline emerged from the hole in the wall she had just created. Around both of her fists was pure red magical energy.

From up in the stands, Adrienne could see the magic that encircled Madeline's fists. "Is that her magic?" she asked Alice.

"Yup, she uses her own magical energy as a means to augment the strength of her attack. But that's not all it does."

Jackie knew that her demon form usually gave her an advantage in her speed and raw strength so she moved to exploit Madeline in her current state. She darted towards Madeline. She was going to gain the match advantage as fast as possible. Using her momentum to her advantage, she pulled her black fist back and forced a jab to Madeline's face. The punch connected, but Madeline had been feigning her meekness.

She blocked the monstrous punch one handed. A sly grin broke out over her face and then she loosened the grip on Jackie's fist and grabbed a hold of her scaly arm preventing her from retreating. She then began her one handed assault on Jackie.

A non-stop flurry of a magic imbued fist constantly connected with Jackie's head. Jackie was dazed and when Madeline was sure she could stand no longer. She let go of Jackie's arm, transferred her magic to her leg and struck Jackie in her stomach with a kick precise enough to knock the wind out of Jackie. The force of the kick propelled Jackie a few feet into the air. She landed a few feet away and was seemingly unconscious.

This forced the referee to come and inspect Jackie and see if she was willing to continue. "Challenger, Jackie Arison, are you fit to continue?"

She sat up and winced in pain. It felt like her insides had been compressed. "I can go on." She strained. She could hear Madeline taunting her.

"Oh, good. I thought you might have died from that little kick."

Jackie stood to her feet and in her fury released more magical energy. She sprouted wings that were as scaly as the rest of her body.

The referee yelled "Point to Madeline Sable. Resume!" before scurrying out of the way.

Jackie flew into the air and the scales on her gauntlets jutted out. Magic poured into her gauntlets and she began firing the sharpened scales at Madeline.

Madeline held both her hands in the air and kept her palms open. The magic around her hands merged and turned into a large red sphere that encircled her entire body. Just as the scales hit, she completed her shield.

The scales hit the shield at a high velocity creating sparks as they were deflected off of the shield and scattered around the arena. Some scales found their way up to where the fans sat and hit the protective wall in front of them.

Jackie's relentless barrage of scales slowly raised a small cloud of dust on the arena floor accidentally concealing Madeline's location.

When Jackie stopped her assault, a gigantic red hand burst forth from the dust cloud and lunged at Jackie. The giant arm was connected to the translucent sphere that Madeline was in. As she moved her right arm inside the sphere, the giant arm mimicked her movements. She began swiping at Jackie and vigorously trying to grab her.

Jackie retreated for a moment and then using the great speed that her demon soul gave her, she flew past the hand and straight towards Madeline. Her pursuit was halted as a gigantic left fist emerged from the sphere and shot straight towards Jackie. She retreated once more, but had forgotten about the right hand behind her. She backed into the right hand and was held in place as the left fist collided with her entire body.

Madeline retracted her arms and Jackie fell from the sky to the ground below.

She knew she had to get up. Come on Jackie get up. That was all she kept telling herself. Every bone in her body ached. I've got to get up. Nova Eos' rise will start with me. Her head was ringing, but she could hear the referee now.

"Challenger, Jackie Arison, are you fit to continue?"

He kept repeating it. "Yea, yea I can keep on going. Shut up already." She got up once more and turned to Madeline "I knew this wasn't going to be easy. But I'll be the one to put you in your place."

The crowd erupted in cheers with Adrienne cheering alongside them, while Alice remained seated and solemn.

"Point to Madeline Sable. Resume!"

Jackie could hear the voice in her head. It kept repeating the same phrase over and over again. _"Use my power. Use my power Jacqueline Arison."_

Jackie rose to her feet now and yelled to both the voice in her head and Madeline. "I'll beat her with my own power!"

The crowd erupted in cheers once more.

Jackie focused her magic into her palms. Then she pressed them together. As she pulled them apart a blade made of flames slowly formed. When she was finished, she grabbed the hilt and dashed towards Madeline again. As she got closer she yelled out "Let's finish this Madeline!"

Madeline quickly reformed her Red sphere. Just as it finished taking shape, Jackie shattered it with a few quick horizontal slashes.

Madeline back stepped several times and quickly drew her magic to her hands once again. Then she dashed forward to punch Jackie, but missed once more as Jackie flew up above her and landed just behind her.

Jackie quickly compressed her magic into the blade and swung at Madeline unleashing a wave of flames.

Madeline, ever confident in her magic, allowed the fire to collide with her. "You'll have to do better than this Jackie." She used her magic imbued fists to scatter the flames just as she had done with the scales.

Fighting Madeline countless times and always being on the defensive gave Jackie assurance that Madeline would try and disperse an attack she deemed beneath her. She used that instant to get behind her and deal another wave of fire.

This one hit her back and she caught fire immediately. She frantically tried to put out the flames with her magic. In that moment she took her eyes off Jackie.

Jackie burst forward and poured her remaining strength into her fist. She connected with Madeline's cheek and sent her skidding across the floor.

The crowd fell silent until she lay perfectly still. The next sound was "Number 5, Madeline Sable, are you fit to continue?" then arena erupted into a cheer.

Adrienne was cheering with the rest of the crowd when she looked over at Alice who had a worried look on her face.

The crowd nearly drowned out the referee's call to resume. "Point to Jacqueline Arison. Resume!"

"Don't worry Alice. Madeline seems ridiculously strong. The only thing that might be hurt is her pride. She'll be fine."

Alice looked up at her friend. "I'm not worried about Madeline. I'm worried for Jackie."

As she finished her sentence the center of the arena surged with magical energy. Madeline had gotten up and the very presence of her magical energy had become sinister.

The crowd fell silent once more.

She had a twisted look of glee on her face. She faced the referee and in emotionless even words said "I'm fit to continue." Magical energy continued to build up in her and the arena remained silent. Madeline finally broke her silence. "Janus!" she roared aloud in her anger. The magical energy that poured out from her slowly condensed in her hand.

When her magical energy finally settled, everyone in the arena could see a solid black double sided halberd that she held alongside her. On one end was a red traditional ax and pike design and on the other end was a spear head. The solid black pole had red embroidery that spiraled around it from end to end. She grasped the weapon with both hands now.

Jackie wasted no time in attempting to attack Madeline. She was going to put her down while she was still reeling from the earlier round. She flew into the air and then dove at Madeline swinging her sword in an overhead attack as they came into contact.

Madeline parried the attack with a quick rotation of the weapon she called Janus. The rotation of the parry brought Jackie to the ground for a moment.

Madeline's expression retained its current state of twisted pleasure throughout the entire exchange. She followed up the parry with an overhead attack of her own.

As the Halberd came crashing down on her, Jackie moved to block it by holding her flaming sword above her head. The pressure of the heavier weapon above her brought would have brought Jackie to her knees had it not been for her demonic strength. However, the sword itself slowly began to die out. Its flame became smaller and smaller until Jackie had to drop the sword and back-step out of the Halberd's trajectory.

Madeline's Halberd smashed into the ground and created a small crater in the ground where Jackie had been standing.

"What happened to my sword?" Jackie yelled out. She had fought Madeline countless times and had never seen her use this weapon. It was true this was the first time she had ever gotten a point against her or even used her own flame sword, but could she really have been hiding strength this massive the entire time. The moment she took to question herself and Madeline was too long.

Madeline turned the spear head of Janus towards Jackie and a large amount of magical energy condensed into a bead at the tip. Then she fired a blast of pure energy at Jackie. The beam hit Jackie square in the chest and she was blasted across the arena into the wall. Her body went limp as she lost consciousness and Madeline erupted into a vicious cynical laughter.

"What was that Jackie? You were gonna put me in my place!?" Her laughter grew slightly more deranged until in an instant she was calm "You'll always be beneath me Jackie." And she walked over to the lift.

"Match point, Number 5 Madeline Sable!" called the referee. The medics entered the arena and carried Jackie out on a stretcher.

The crowd erupted once more and as they died down they slowly began to file out of the coliseum.

Adrienne remained seated though.

"What's wrong Adrienne?" asked Alice.

"Alice" Adrienne said quietly, "That weapon is a blood pact artifact."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Special Thanks to Raiyanne for all of her help. If you don't know, she's an amazing writer.

A great deal of thanks goes to Barrett M107 for Rosca.

I hope you all enjoyed that fight because it wouldn't have been possible without Unicorn819's submission of Jackie.

I hope I portrayed your characters accurately. If not please feel free to message me about it. Also, if anyone has any questions about when their character might appear or about something that confused you in the story, feel free to ask me about it.

This chapter is about twice as long as the last chapter. How'd everyone feel about it?

How'd you all feel about the coliseum? It won't be a constant occurrence unless you all like it a lot. I have a lot of plans for it, but I promise it won't be the focal point of the Brightholt Chronicles.

When it comes to fights, I will randomly choose a winner and then write the fight to the best of my ability. Unless the pairing has a blatantly obvious winner or I need one person to win for the furthering of the plot.

Each week, I'll take a look at the OC submissions I received and randomly pick a few to fill out the S-class slots. But all characters will get their spotlight. Maybe even more so than some S-Class.

That is why I introduced the concept of an SS mage. As you can see, the mage's nickname is already referred to, but I actually haven't created the character. So I'll be choosing one mage at random. More on that later.

I'm a firm believer in staying close to canon, but I will be introducing a few things that are never seen or explained thoroughly enough in Fairy Tail. I hope that doesn't bother anyone.

I've got outlines for a few different sub plots. These are the titles.

A day in Nova Eos

Number 5, Madeline Sable

A Celestial Face-off

My plan is to explore all three in the next chapter, but I figured I'd keep my word and give you all a chance to have some say in the story. Either in a pm or in a review let me know which sub-plot should get the spotlight for the next chapter. I'll wait until Wednesday night before making a decision.

I'll have a list of potential arc names on my profile later.

All mages are equally important, but just so we're clear. Nova Eos will have the least amount of S-class mages, Phantom Scarlet will have the most and the Eternal Knights will have an intermediate number and the only SS mage. When I decide on the actual numbers and what positions are left to fill, I'll post it to my profile.

Thanks again for reading.


	3. A Day in Nova Eos

**October 17, X791, 11:00 A.M, North of Brightholt City**

The path before the two women was paved with large jagged rocks. With their small statures, they had to hop from rock to the other as a means of clearing the forest they were in. They were supposed to be preparing for their up-coming match in the coliseum, but Master Seigfried asked them to take this reconnaissance mission.

The taller of the two miniscule women looked over at her partner who was devouring a series of different candy from the bag she had been bribed with. As they jumped from rocked to rock she said, "Geez, if you're gonna be bribed so easily at least make it last Tally".

The one she called Tally pulled her head out of the goody bag to respond, but all of her words were jumbled by the mouth full of candy. She finished her latest piece of candy and said "I'm sorry Aoba. You know I can't help it when I see candy."

They cleared the last rock and landed on even ground. Aoba dusted herself off as soon as she landed. She was almost doll-like in size standing barely over 5 feet. That combined with her lovely pale skin often attracted the attention of many men. Aoba had a tendency to always dress her best. She could usually be found in kimonos of various colors all with a floral design of some sort. Today's kimono was dark red and what seemed to be a design of pink roses wrapped itself around the kimono. Years of training had given her the ability to traverse the terrain behind them with little to no effort even while wearing wooden sandals. It also could have simply been the allure of the unknown that attracted their attention of men. She wore a light veil that covered her face from the top of her face to the tip of her nose. Her green eyes were always hidden and her silky black hair was always pulled into a neat bun.

She finished cleaning herself and saw that Tally had already moved on without the slightest desire to dust herself off. "mhmm," she said bringing Tally's attention to her. Tally caught Aoba's silent meaning and sighed in disgust. "Is it really necessary?" she asked.

Aoba walked over to her friend and began dusting her off. "You know how I feel about it. I won't have you trouncing about covered in dirt."

Tally wore a pastel pink tube top that left her stomach exposed and seemed to only cover her cleavage. She stood a few inches lower than her friend and her childlike figure was accented by her dark, mocha colored skin. Her freckles dotted her shoulders and nose. Aoba was currently in the process of dusting off the detached pastel pink sleeves that started just above her elbows and covered her hands. The sleeves had golden trim on both ends, making them sparkle. Her shoulders were exposed. Though most womanly features seemed to elude her, her hips had a nice curve to them. They were covered by baggy, beige colored pants that fell just below her knees. They had golden trim on the ends that hugged her calves. Today was a special day, because for the first time in the last week Aoba had won their daily game of "Will Tally Wear Shoes?" So today Tally wore dark brown sandals that had a strap over the top of her feet and behind her heel. She had a golden chain anklet with a pink rose on it on her right ankle. Tally wore a golden choker necklace with a pink rose in the center of it around her neck. Her dark brown hair was tied up in two buns, most likely the result of another game between Tally and Aoba. Her hair had been tied up by sparkly golden ribbons.

Aoba finished dusting off her younger friend. "I'm almost certain Master Seigfried was prepared to bribe us. I mean, he just pulled the bag out of nowhere," said Tally.

Aoba looked at Tally and exclaimed, "Us!?"

"Fine, fine. Me," responded Tally.

She had barely finished speaking before several loud thuds could be heard all around them. When the dust cleared, they could see several over-sized Forest Vulcans. "Damn it, I just finished cleaning you off," said Aoba.

"It doesn't seem like they want to let us pass," said Tally half laughing.

"Urgh, I don't have time for this," said Aoba

The vulcans all converged on where Tally and Aoba stood, but with the small sizes they slipped out from between their legs.

"Couture de Affûtée" said Aoba calmly as her clothes became visibly sharper. She burst forward towards the Vulcans and began her assault.

She was fighting off two of them. Her small frame made her seemingly untouchable as she danced between them and around them lacing them with several sharpened punches.

The two other vulcans charged Tally now, but she also expertly dodged the sluggish punches coming from the over-sized combatant. She continued dodging until her back was against a wall of some sort. The vulcans saw this and both tried to connect a punch. She rolled through their legs again and their fists collided with nothing but stone.

With both of them dazed, she gathered her breath and unleashed her magic. "Violet Djinn Slayer's Hymn!" A blast of purple magical energy collided with both the vulcans and the wall behind them.

The wall crumbled and both Vulcans were sent flying into the opening Tally just made.

She turned to see Aoba in the air above the last Vulcan. Her sleeved fist collided with his head as she landed on it and the Vulcan fell defeated next to his partner.

"Whew, that was pretty fun," said Tally turning to inspect the hole, "I think I found the ruins that Master Seigfried was talking about."

She moved to enter the hole when she heard Aoba. "mhmm," she said.

"What? Again! Are you serious?" said Tally as she surrendered to her friends cleaning tendencies.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 12:00 P.M, Nova Eos Guild<strong>

Jade slouched over the banister of the second floor in Nova Eos. His guild was in last place, still. They were the weakest and no matter what they did they couldn't find a way to break into the power struggle between the Eternal Knights and Scarlet Phantom. He was glad that Jackie had improved so much. She had managed to gain some ground on Madeline and the top ten in general. Jade respected her determination and her loyalty to the guild. As the second strongest member of Nova Eos he had faith in her, but fighting against someone as high as number 5 might have been asking for too much. There was just too much ground to cover between her and Madeline in such a short time.

Jade had hoped she wouldn't let her grudge with Madeline fuel her decision in an opponent. She could have just as easily fought against the coliseum's 10th ranked member. She certainly had a better chance against him, than she did against Madeline. He looked around his guild. The mages were either in their bedrooms or lounging about downstairs. Jade thought back to his excitement when he was approved as an official guild master.

He had run from store to store picking out green fabrics and paint to design the walls and bedrooms. Having been a drifter for most of his life, Jade knew the importance of a guild that can double as a home. "That's it!" He yelled for the entire guild to hear. With new found determination he raced down the oak wood steps and shut the door behind him as he bolted into his office next to the bar.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 12:30 P.M, Nova Eos Guild<strong>

Guild members in Nova Eos slowly began to descend either of the two spiral staircases. For the last half an hour there had been a continuous hammering noise that resounded throughout the guild.

Jackie finally made her way down the steps. She had to slowly limp down the stairs. Most of her body had been bandaged following her fight with Madeline and though there were no serious injuries, she was still sore. She nudged her way to the front of the small crowd of mages and gave a questioning look her fellow mages.

"Does anyone know what Master Jade is doing?" she asked.

When no one answered, she slowly began to make her way to his door. Just as she got past the bar, his door burst open and Master Jade ran up to the bar. He jumped on the counter and hammered an erasable board into the wall above it. As he hammered, the mages in the guild could see that it held the current top ten coliseum rankings on it.

He turned to his guild now and said, "This board behind me is a reminder of where we are in the rankings and what's at stake. Holding the most spots in the top ten determines the winner of The Brightholt Grand Prix and we-" he paused to jump down, "have one spot on the board."

Jackie hung her head in shame. She had a chance to cut the deficit between them and the other two guilds and she had failed. She was sure everyone was disappointed in her and now she had no way to make it up to them. The rules of the Grand Prix said that each ranked member only had to accept an unranked challenge once during each Grand Prix and she was sure Madeline would never accept her challenge again.

Jade looked through the crowd and saw the depletion. "Don't lose hope, Nova Eos," his voice resounded through the guild. "We haven't seen the best of times, but just like our namesake, we will rise."

His speech had mixed reactions. Some members were energized by their master's new found hope and others decided that now was as good a time as any to play devil's advocate. Someone yelled out "How are we supposed to make a comeback now. Jackie was our best chance at gaining another spot."

The life was taken out of the crowd again. The owner of the voice stepped forward now and stood alongside Master Jade. It was Kayden Wary. He was dressed in his usual white sleeveless shirt with blue trim and black shorts. He wore matching sandals and had his dark green hair in a pony tail that went down to the middle of his back.

While he usually had the best intentions at heart, he often came off as rude and unapproachable. "Jackie is ranked 12th in the coliseum. She's the lowest ranked S-class in the whole city. And she's way stronger than any of us."

He stopped talking when Jackie began walking forward. She stood at the front of the bar now. She wasn't sure what she could say to them. While fighting back tears she choked out "I'm sorry guys. I let you down."

There was a pause and then someone from the crowd yelled out "Oh, shut up." Her head had been hung in shame, but at the sound of the voice she jumped up and began searching for its owner.

Another young man pushed his way to the front of the small group of mages and stood in front of her. The young man stood about a head taller than Jackie. He was slightly tanned and his dark spiky hair added a few more inches to his already considerable height. He had dark blue eyes that seemed to currently sympathize with Jackie's pain. He wore an open black jacket that had a light gray v neck shirt beneath it. There was a black belt holding up his loose black jeans with matching laced boots and a silver necklace around his neck.

"Don't be so hard on yourself kid," he said patting on her on the head.

Jackie was shocked. "Javier! When'd you get she back?!" she yelled as he pulled her into a hug off of the ground.

Her face was bright red now, forcing a few laughs from the rest of Nova Eos. Slightly embarrassed, she shook herself free and landed on the ground again.

"I got in last night, but you were knocked out from healing magic. Geez, I hope the other guy looks as bad as you" he chuckled, moving a wild strand of hair from her face and placing it behind her ear.

She hung her head in shame again. "Madeline's no worse than usual," She whimpered. "Hmm, well don't worry about it. Me and Shaw still have our chance at the top ten this cycle and it certainly wouldn't be the first time that a regular mage made it through."

Master Jade cut in now. "Where is Shaw? If he's here, too, then we can start planning out a strategy. "Oh, he's right over here," he said pointing to an empty spot in the crowd. He looked around for his partner in crime and after a few moments spotted him at a table across the guild devouring his own buffet of food.

"Shaw! Get your ass over here," Master Jade yelled across the guild hall.

The teenager jumped at the sound of his name and began running across the guild towards Javier. His hair was just as dark and messy as his Javier's, but his blue eyes were a few shades lighter. He was much shorter and had a leaner build. His green hoodie hid what looked like a black tank top and it sported the Nova Eos guild mark; a tree bursting with light. He wore tan knee length shorts and black and green sneakers to match his hoodie.

He made it across the guild quickly and Javier said, "What's so important that you can't wait a few minutes?"

We haven't eaten in days because of you," Shaw quickly retorted.

Before either of them could get another word in, their stomach roared in unison. Master Jade shook his head in defeat. "My office, as soon as you're done eating," he added before walking away.

Javier turned to Kayden now. "You really shouldn't interrupt him like that. We're all working hard because we want to be the best."

Kayden opened his mouth to speak and Shaw cut in now. "Aren't you tired of being in last?"

Kayden scoffed and shook his head. Knowing he couldn't argue against the two of them he stormed off towards his table. A few mages followed behind him shortly after.

"Me and a few of the guys are gonna go get something to eat, you coming?" Shaw asked turning his attention back to his friend.

Javier took a quick glance at Jackie's wounds and said "Nope, I think I'll stay here for a bit."

Shaw exited the guild and a few guys followed behind him.

"So how about we grab a seat before you keel over," Javier said pulling Jackie along. They took a seat on opposite sides of their usual table next to the bar and tried to catch up. Javier and Jackie hadn't been this close to begin with. Jackie had originally avoided him whenever she could. She found his never-ending desire to approach any and every woman insufferable. So she had made it a point to make any interaction that she had with him as dreadful as possible. When he failed to impress a woman, she'd be there to chime in at his defeat.

But eventually she warmed up to him. They found a common ground that neither of them had even thought possible. They were friends. They were maybe even something more than that. She was never really certain where they stood. One moment they'd be having a good time and the next he was off looking for Gyro. She decided to address his return immediately. "Any luck with Gyro?" she asked.

Javier let out a sigh and then shrugged back a negative response.

She decided to say what was on her mind when he usually left without a moment's notice. "You know you don't have to follow every rumor about a dragon."

He looked her over once more. Her head was facing the table, but he was sure she was watching him. "Let's talk about something else. I heard you got a point against Madeline," he said.

She perked up now. She wanted to discuss his frequent departures, but she loved talking about the coliseum. "Yup, I told you I've gotten stronger. I had on her on the ropes and everything. But then…" She paused and her excitement died down a little. "She used a weapon I've never seen before. She was so powerful."

Javier enjoyed the coliseum, but he was often more focused on missions and finding his father, Gyro. Sometime after Shaw joined the guild, they both became pretty close and began traveling together. They really only participated in the Grand Prix out of loyalty to Master Jade.

Jackie decided to switch the conversation to the one thing that brought them closer. "Are you still hearing the voice," she whispered.

He thought about it for a moment. "Yea, it's been getting worse and worse. Most times it's unbearable. But sometimes, it's helpful."

"What!?" she yelled.

He looked up at her now. She had a look of disbelief on her face. "It's true!" He answered defensively. "The other day, me and Shaw were attacked by Vulcans and when one was going to hit Shaw from behind, the voice told me to protect him and I stopped the attack."

She couldn't believe it; here she was being tormented by the voice in her head and the one person whom she was sure would always understand her pain was defending his own.

Javier wasn't sure why she looked so hurt all of a sudden. He thought she might have been happy for him. The voice he was hearing seemed somewhat benevolent nowadays. "Are you still hea…" was all he managed to ask before she screamed out "Of course I am!" With tears in her eyes now, she turned and ran off to the S-class floor.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 1:00 P.M, Magdalena's<strong>

"Alright boys, what'll it be?" Magdalena asked as she set Shaw's favorite window table. Shaw looked around at the rest of his group. "We'll all have pancakes!" said Shaw excitedly.

He sat on one side of the table and gleamed at the two friends across from him. Kai Saroyan and Junjo Rosario were both older than Shaw, who was barely 16, but whenever he wasn't training or traveling with Javier, he was hanging out with them.

Kai had straight teal colored hair that was about shoulder length. He had a tan complexion and was usually dressed ready for a fight. He wore a black tank top and a pair of black shoes. His loose fitted pants were also black.

Junjo was also prone to getting into a fight. So he usually wore some gaudy sweater that would be discarded later. He had on blue pants and sandals and today his sweater was simply an odd shade of neon green.

"Did you and Javier find anything on Gyro?" asked Kai.

Shaw shook his head. He and Javier had left to complete a mission and on the way they heard a rumor about a dragon being spotted. They sent word back to the guild about it and had been traveling for weeks since then.

"Forget about that. You meet any women along the way?" Junjo chimed in as serious as possible. "I want details. Descriptions." He lay back in his seat now and closed his eyes. "Paint me a picture, Shaw." He added playfully.

"Here's the food you ordered," said Magdalena.

"Oh, Maggy, seeing you is more than enough food for my soul," said Junjo jumping to his feet and assisting her with the trays.

She shook her head at his antics. She then handed him the trays and turned to leave. "I'm still not going out with you Jo," she said, while walking away.

Shaw and Kai expected him to take his usual crestfallen stance after having been shot down, but he jumped on top of the table. "Yes! This is progress, men," He said after jumping down and dancing around them.

"What are you talking about?" asked Kai.

"Didn't you hear her? She didn't call me Mister Rosario this time."

The whole restaurant burst into laughter at the man's denial.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 1:00 P.M, Nova Eos<strong>

The mages at Kayden's table had watched as Jackie ran up the stairs and out of sight. Then an awkward silence had taken over.

The girl at the table was the first to break it. "Do you think I should go cheer her up?" she inquired.

Her name was Melody Stanz. She was wearing one of her many colorful dresses that musical notes on the side. Today's dress was sky blue. They all seemed to compliment her fair skin, so it never really mattered. Her hair was in loose blond curls that ended at her shoulders and she wore a pair of light green earrings to match her eyes.

Kayden looked up from his reading to formulate a response. His eyes glanced over the violin she usually carried with her. "I don't think she would want some sort of fake emotion," he said condescendingly. "Don't you agree, Kenneth?"

The boy next to him shot Kayden a glare and quickly went to console Melody.

As he stood, one could tell that he was actually quite tall. He wore a green shirt. He had a brown jacket and black pants that were both riddled with tears and holes. His fingerless gloves matched his shirt. But his most astounding feature had to be either his long blond hair that went down to his waist or the chain of whistles that hung around his neck.

Melody was always sensitive about her magic and constantly felt useless in the guild. "He didn't mean it Melody," said Kenneth placing an arm around her shoulder. "He's just upset that he isn't ranked in the coliseum," he quickly added.

Kayden's face was bright red in anger now. "You're not ranked, either!" He shot back.

Kenneth broke out in a laugh. "That's because I've never participated in the coliseum. Some of us just enjoy doing missions. There's nothing wrong with that."

He could tell Kayden was about to blow, so he decided to playfully throw one more punch. "And plus, if I did. I'd already be ranked ahead of you."

That was all it took for Kayden to burst. "Alright then, fight me right now!" he yelled.

Just as he finished, Shaw, Kai and Junjo returned to the guild.

"You looking for a fight Kayden?" asked Kai making his way over to the table. They passed a still down trodden Javier on their way in, and Shaw and Junjo took a seat with him to watch the spectacle about to unfold.

"What? Are you gonna fight me, Kai?" Kayden asked backing up slightly.

"Damn straight," Kai quickly responded and pulled a white key from his pocket.

"Gate of the Pure Archer: Open!" yelled Kai and an archer with short blond hair appeared. There was no way to tell if the archer was male or female. They were dressed in white robes and their face was covered up to their eyes.

Kayden pulled out a sparkling red key and yelled "Gate of the Crimson Harpy: Open!".

A red winged creature materialized above Kayden. "You called for me, Master Kayden?" it asked.

"Yup, we're gonna put Kai in his place today, Helia."

"As you wish, Master," said Helia and she spread her wings and began firing flaming feathers at Kai. The feathers were intercepted by arrows of light causing them to explode in the air.

A near endless confrontation ensued. Flaming feathers were fired and intercepted by light arrows causing them to explode in the air. The rest of the guild watched on in awe, knowing what was coming next.

"You know why you're always losing, Kayden. You're not strong enough to help your spirits," said Kai. And with that he began condensing white lightning in his hands. "Lightning Make: Crow's murder."

He released the lightning to the ceiling and once it finished ascending it began to drop. On its descent, the lightning formed into several electric crows. They collided with Kayden and Helia.

They lay paralyzed now, shaking from the electricity coursing through their bodies.

Master Jade came out to see the commotion. Looking over the scene, he said, "Well at least we won't have to repair the guild this time. That's enough Kai,"

He turned to Shaw and Javier. "Let's get down to business," said Master Jade. With that Junjo, Shaw and Javier all followed Jade into his office.

"Okay, as you know, each of you has one chance during this cycle to challenge a member of the top ten. We should go about this as logically as possible. The three of you should fight the three lowest ranked members. I think that Junjo should challenge Number 10, Shaw should challenge number 9 and Javier should challenge number 8," said Jade.

All but Javier agreed to this plan. "Nope," said Javier "I'll challenge Number 7, Marco Seifer." They all looked at him confused so he added, "We've got a sort of friendly rivalry going and he passed me by a mile during the last S-Class Trials so it's time I repay the favor."

"Isn't he an Eternal Knight?" asked Junjo.

"Yup, he is. But all that matters is proving that Nova Eos is better than everyone else," responded Javier.

Master Jade was delighted to see the fire that remained in his mages. "That works fine. Then I'll have Rau fight number 8 when he gets back from his mission," said Jade. He wrote down the match ups and passed it around for all of them to sign.

Challenger, Number 19, Junjo Rosario vs. Number 10

Challenger, Number 17, Shaw Riley vs. Number 9

Challenger, Number 15, Rau Volikia vs. Number 8

Challenger, Number 14, Javier Montero vs. Number 7

"What mission is he on?" asked Shaw as he signed the paper.

"He is supposed to be doing reconnaissance for the city about a disturbance to the ruins far north of the city," answered Jade.

A voice shook the guild's walls. "Jacqueline Arison!" it boomed.

Master Jade and the mages in his office exited to the main hall to find that a small lacrima message was playing. It kept repeating her name until Jackie limped her way towards it and said, "I'm Jacqueline Arison."

The small floating lacrima came to her eye level now and said, "You are to report to the coliseum for your Juggernaut match as penalty for losing your match against Madeline Sable."

Jackie looked around at the rest of the guild. It had only been 2 days. Everyone thought she'd have more time.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 1:00 P.M, Eternal Knights<strong>

"Urgh, I don't know why this is so hard for you to understand," Alice said looking across the table at Adrienne.

"It's just. There are so many rules. Why can't we just fight?" she asked with a hint of confusion lingering in her voice.

"Fine, but this is the last time I'm explaining the coliseum," said a frustrated Alice.

"All three guilds compete in the coliseum to determine who is the strongest. The winner is determined by how many spots in the top ten are held. The mages in the top ten are ridiculously strong. So only the mages who have obtained a position between eleven and twenty can challenge them. Every Grand Prix all of the numbers, eleven and above, reset."

"Wait, so there are more numbers than 20?" asked Adrienne.

"Exactly!" said Alice. "Every mage in Brightholt who signs up in the coliseum receives a number. Your rank can increase as high as number eleven depending on how many wins and losses you have in the coliseum. But once you have passed number 20, you're allowed to challenge any ranked member as a representative of your guild."

"Ahh, it's starting to make some sense now. So ranked members must get to fight all of the time then?" Adrienne added.

"Well, that's the catch. Each member of the top ten only has to accept one challenge during each Grand Prix. So there can be as few as only ten ranked matches in one Grand Prix cycle. That's why it's important to win as many matches as possible in the beginning of the Grand Prix. This way you have a better chance of winning a spot in the top ten."

"I get it now, but what happens if a ranked mage doesn't accept the challenge?" asked Adrienne.

No sooner than she had asked the question did the doors to the Eternal Knights blow open. A beautiful woman walked in. She had straight black hair that went down to the middle of her back. She kept her wardrobe simple; a black sleeveless shirt with red accents along the hem and a red skirt. She had on red sneakers as well. Adrienne would have been sure that she was a member of the Scarlet Phantoms had it not been for the pink image of a knight on her right shoulder.

She walked into the guild with an air of vanity. Behind her was a large chest that seemed to be walking on its own. She walked towards Master Seigfried who had been childishly making a sundae at the bar and said, "Here's the reward for the mission."

The chest settled to the floor and the magic supporting it dispelled. As it the magic dissipated, the chest swung open for Master Seigfried. His jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes went white in shock. The chest was full to the brim with jewels and gold all sorts. "I'll have a spirit collect my share. Thank you for the mission, Master Seigfreid."

Alice had been watching for a while and decided to have some fun at the girl's expense now. "Lucia," Alice called across the guild, "come meet the new member of the guild."

Adrienne could see the look of frustration break out across the girl's face. "Alice what are you doing?" asked Adrienne. "She doesn't seem to be in the best of moods."

"Trust me. This is gonna be funny," said Alice. Lucia made her way over to the pair of girls and extended her hand to Adrienne, who quickly took it in an attempt to stay on this woman's good side.

"Hey Lucia, this is Adrienne. I've been explaining the rules of the coliseum to her."

Lucia's expression changed instantly from one of disgust to pride. "Oh, well have you told her who number one is?" she asked, the conceitedness laced in her tone.

"Yup, I sure did. We met Rosca the other day."

The woman before them exploded with anger. "Don't test me Alice, tell me again who is the strongest."

Alice remained unfazed. "As of a few days ago, Rosca is the strongest mage in the city." Alice said coolly.

Her anger quickly subsided and she began running around the guild tearing through every draw looking for a calendar. "How can this be? I should still have more time to accept the challenge. It's only the thirte…" She stopped, having finally found a calendar which revealed she was four days off. She burst in anger once more and yelled as she marched up the stairs towards her room. "This is exactly why I didn't want to take that S-class mission."

Alice turned her attention back towards a highly confused Adrienne. "That was Lucia Corazon, currently ranked 2nd best in Brightholt. She and Rosca fight from time to time over number one, but the match is usually so intense that neither of those battle lovers can stomach repeating it too often. You see, when a ranked mage fails to accept a challenge, they are simply forced back one spot in the ranking. While she was gone she was challenged and didn't get to accept," Alice said with some finality in her voice.

"But none of that explains why your sister has a blood pact artifact," said Arienne.

"Ahh, right," sighed Alice. "To be honest, I didn't know it was a blood pact artifact. Every now and then a tournament is held with specific entering restrictions. The prize is either some money or an invitation for a special quest or some strange item. A few months ago, my sister won one of these tournaments and received a sphere of some sort."

"That's the artifact's contract form," said Adrienne as she felt for her own artifact." It's the form it takes before someone binds their magic and their blood to it. But isn't it strange that the town just offered up an artifact like that."

"Nope," said Alice "The mayor's son is a treasure hunter. He and a few companions spend most of their time searching the world for rare artifacts. Sometimes, he comes back here and sells it to the mayor. The mayor is happy to do it, because something as powerful as that shakes up the rankings and keeps citizen's interest in the coliseum," explained Alice.

She thought for a moment and then continued "Whenever he returns the bell in Alliance Hall rings to signal their return. You'll probably meet him eventually. He and a few other people have gained that level of recognition. The Harbinger's also one of them. It's kind of funny. They have nothing to do with one another, but the people have taken to calling them 'The Bell Kin'."

Just as she finished her speech a lacrima announcement sounded throughout the city. "Jacqueline Arison will be facing her juggernaut penalty today," the voice revealed. Alice's face held an extreme amount of shock in it. She got up and pulled Adrienne to her feet and out of the door. "Let's go. You're not gonna wanna miss this."

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 1:30 P.M, The Coliseum – Arena C<strong>

Adrienne and Alice stood in the top row of the Arena C's rafters. It seemed as if, the entire town had tried to make it into the coliseum. The arena seemed similar to the Main Arena, with two few exceptions. There were no elevators in the floor. Combatants would normally enter through one of the four gigantic gates in the cardinal points of the arena and this arena was suited for far more variations in combat. Currently Jackie, Master Jade, Madeline, and Master Narissa stood in the center of the arena.

"What's this about Narissa? We usually wait a week before issuing a juggernaut challenge," snapped Jade.

"True, but it's recently come to my attention that as long as three days of rest have passed a juggernaut challenge can be issued," retorted Narissa.

Jade was at a loss. There was no way that Jackie could withstand a juggernaut challenge in her condition. "Narissa have some compassion. There's no reason to do this," said Jade in an attempt to reason with Narissa.

"You're weak Jade and little by little I'm gonna weed out this city's weakness," she said coldly.

Back in the stands, all of Nova Eos sat in horror of the events to come. Behind them were some members of Scarlet Phantom and some of the Eternal Knights. "Why does Jackie have to fight again? She can barely stand," whispered Adrienne.

"When an unranked member loses a ranked match, they face a penalty. They can skip it and be dropped to the bottom of the ranking or they can face a juggernaut penalty. If they win, they can keep their rank. If they lose, then they get dropped to the bottom anyway," said Alice.

As she finished her statement, three roulette wheels materialized in the middle of the arena. Master Jade didn't know what to do. He knew there was no way that Jackie would give up her spot, but to let her fight now would be even more fool hardy. He'd have to forfeit it for her. "Wait. Don't do it!" a voice called out from the stands.

It was Kayden. He jumped down from the stands and ran over to the mages. He pulled out a pocket sized rule book and explained another rule. "If the mage receiving the juggernaut penalty cannot participate due to injury, then a fellow guild member can act as a stand-in,"

New life returned to Master Jade and then was simultaneously crushed by Narissa. "Yes, but there are no S-class mages to stand-in for her, little boy. The one you call Hazel Rochelle is away on a mission," she said.

Kayden didn't back down from the fierce woman before him. "Nope, but the rules say that in the event that there is no S-class stand-in available, the guild master can authorize two regular mages to simultaneously act as stand-ins," he said.

She grabbed the book from his hand ferociously and after finding the rule she ignited the book in her hand. She stormed off from the arena in a fury with Madeline close behind her. After the rule was repeated aloud for the arena, Javier and Shaw jumped down from the stands.

"Nice job, Kayden" said Shaw patting him on the back. "We'll take it from here," said both Shaw and Javier as they arrived in front of the Roulette wheels.

A look of pride burst over Master Jade's face and before Jackie could protest anyone taking her place. He lifted her up and jumped to the stands. He took his seat and was followed by Kayden.

Each roulette wheel began spinning. The results on each wheel signified the juggernaut challenge that the mage would have to undergo. The first wheel came to a stop. It read the game type. "Survival." The second one came to a halt and signified the type of opponents. "Humanoid." As the third one slowed down. Shaw and Javier prepared for battle. Shaw removed his hoodie now as he did in most fights. You could see the physique that countless hours of training had brought him and his right arm was bandaged up to his shoulder. Javier's body began to release small amounts of magic as he prepared for the final wheel to stop spinning. The third wheel stopped. It signified the element or elements of the opponents. "Fire."

All three wheels disintegrated and all throughout the arena small embers appeared. They surrounded Javier and Shaw. Slowly each ember formed into that of fiery humanoid being. Shaw broke out in laughter. "They've got to be kidding. Fire, really," he said as Javier cracked a huge grin and took a huge breath. He finished building up his energy and unleashed.

"Ice Dragon's roar!" The roar tore through countless embers. They froze and shattered to dust.

A magic circle formed under Shaw and he activated his magic. "First Gear" he said calmly as his body started to give off a white vapor. His eyes turned a white blue color and burst off in a sprint beginning his assault on the embers.

From the stands it seemed as if embers were being defeated simply by him running past them. His magic gave him the ability to move at unimaginable speeds and possess inhuman strength for a short duration of time. The shorter the duration, the faster and stronger he was. As he ran by the embers he'd increase the potency of his spell and at a speed too fast for a normal eye to see, he'd unleash a flurry of punches and destroy an ember.

Javier was holding his own against several embers at once. He had been surrounded again so he jumped into the air and as he landed he hit the ground using his "Ice Dragon's Crushing Fang" technique.

The spell hit the ground and with him as the epicenter, several waves of ice cascaded out of the ground piercing the embers as the ice formed.

Shaw was making quick work of the embers around him. As he closed in on one, he'd rev up his speed with "First Gear" and unleash countless punches.

They held their own for several waves of embers until the waves stopped coming.

"You think it's over?" asked Shaw who was puffing and catching his breath.

"Not just yet," replied Javier.

Several embers appeared before them and slowly merged into one giant ember humanoid. It unleashed a breath of fire at Javier and Shaw. Javier quickly released his own breath and matched the creature's.

As he had it preoccupied, Shaw activated "First Gear" and unleashed a quick flurry of punches at the beings head.

Unfazed by his miniature attacks, the giant swiped at Shaw with his large flaming hand and sent him flying into the ground.

Both breath attacks canceled each other out and seemed to daze the giant so Javier took this chance to attack the giant.

He yelled out "Ice Dragon's Sacred Horns," as he coated his arms in ice and sliced an X shape through the behemoth's body.

As he stumbled back, slowly freezing from his torso out, Shaw charged the both of his knees. He faced the left one and poured a great deal of magic into his right arm. He yelled out "Shotgun" and connected a punch with the giant's knee creating a gaping hole in the knee. In a flash, he had duplicated this attack on the second knee.

The creature fell onto his back, slowly freezing. After a moment, it froze over completely and shattered.

The entire Nova Eos section burst into an uproar. The citizens followed along and began cheering for them and Adrienne and Alice couldn't help but cheer.

The cheering was brought to an abrupt end as the bell in Alliance Hall rang signaling a "Bell Kin's" Return.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

_**Special Thanks:**_

Special thanks to Raiyane for all of her help.

Special thanks to all of the Nova Eos members.

Special thanks to series of dark guild submissions I've received. I haven't even started working on it, but your interest, gives me a lot of hope for the story.

**How's it going?**

I want you all to be completely honest with me about anything that comes to mind. If you have an idea or a critique or I'm messing up your character, please let me know and we'll work on it.

I'm curious. How do you all feel about Blood Pact Artifacts?

To everyone who is using your phone to read, review or PM. I feel your pain. I had to use my phone the other day and the mobile version of this website is ridiculously frustrating.

I'm terribly sorry for anyone who PMed me and didn't get a response back. I'm looking through my e-mail for those messages now. I wasn't aware that I had overlooked any.

So, are you all enjoying this story? A lot of you have been great to me and the story and I can't thank you enough.

**S-class openings update:**

Scarlet Phantoms – 2 Spots

Nova Eos – Closed

Eternal Knights – 3 spots (2 who actively participate in the coliseum and 1 who doesn't) I also wouldn't mind if they were guys. 95% of Eternal Knights are currently female. Just saying.

I'd prefer to get submissions from people who never submitted before. But don't be afraid to send me an OC if you come up with one.

Sorry if I kept you all waiting for long. I wanted to give Nova Eos its spotlight and there were a lot of you. Tried my best with it, hope I didn't disappoint. If you ever find yourself curious about when a chapter is going to be released, the tentative date will be on my profile.

Someone pointed out to me that I may have set a big order with 3 guilds. Since they all have to be adequately populated. They wondered if I would scrap the story, if I failed to get enough members. The answer is No. I will keep on writing, because it's a lot of fun.

Yes, I actually have a wheel that I spin for Juggernaut Matches.

**Special Submission**

So I thought I might inform you all of a race of slayers that has been created by one of your fellow readers. As mentioned in the chapter, they are Djinn slayers. Now I know the idea of a slayer is very alluring, but if people are seriously interested in creating a character who is a djinn slayer, PM me. The submission guide for this will follow the same form, but you will have to discuss it with me. A few rules:

If you've already submitted a character, then I'd prefer that, at least at first, you not submit a Djinn slayer.

You'll PM me your interest. I'll explain how the race works. Then I'll let you pick from the djinn slayers that I have been given and you'll message me back your form.

Now I refuse to sully the race by having 100 djinn slayers appear out of nowhere. So at least for right now, I will only accept one djinn slayer.

From time to time throughout the story I will introduce a new brand of magic that will be open to variations, such as elements with the slayers or colors with the djinns. It'll appear in the Author Note as a "**Special Submission"**. When that happens I will open these submissions as I see fit for these magic types, accept a few and then close it again. However, general submissions will probably be open for a very long time.

I'm sorry if that comes off as rude. I won't pretend to be the most talented reviewer or enlightened writer, but to give everyone a fair chance at submitting an OC while maintaining the integrity of what appears to be "unique" magic I think it should work this way. I'm sorry if that upsets you all. If you all don't think it should work this way, let me know and I'll think of another means of achieving this goal.

_**Chapter Release Event**_

I want to try something out. From time to time, I'll hold one of these events and the winner(s) may get an in-story prize for their character. I'm only trying it out. So if it doesn't go well. It's gone. If people like it, I'll keep it around. I'll always try and be fair about it.

What is the name of the Nova Eos member who is a part of the top ten?

_**Release Events Rules**_

The 24 hours immediately after a release will be broken into three 8 hour parts.

The first person to be correct within any of these windows receives a prize.

Then I'll PM the winners


	4. The Bell Kin

**Author Note:**

I want to say thank you to everyone who was patient with me writing this chapter. The series of misfortune that I had while completing this was hilariously annoying. Several blue screens. Missing documents. Emergency room visits. I digress. I will be coming back to this chapter and editing here and there. Just something to take note of. Not really important.

I tried to smooth over the two week time gap with a long well thought out chapter. Hope I got that done. Keep in mind that this chapter begins immediately after the ending of the last chapter.

Anyhow, have fun reading.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 2:00 P.M, The Coliseum – Arena C<strong>

Dong! The whole coliseum went quiet as the bell tolled and then racing out of the coliseum.

"Is that what you were talking about?" yelled Adrienne over the roar of the stampeding crowd. Everyone was running out of the arena; heading towards the entrances for a chance to greet whoever had returned.

Alice snapped back to reality. She had been lost in thought over who it could be. She shook off the rest of her confusion. "Um. Yeah. I wonder whose back."

Both girls stood to their feet and followed behind the crowd from a careful distance. It was clear that the excitement had gotten the better of it and everyone seemed to be well out of control.

They had been walking for a few minutes when they passed through the town square and into Eternal Knight Territory.

Alice's mood immediately intensified. "ohh!" she squealed. "If the crowd's headed by our guild then it might be The Harbinger." She jumped up onto a nearby roof. "Come on Adrienne, we'll get their faster like this."

The idea of meeting the supposed strongest Brightholt mage got the better of her and before she knew it, they were running along the roofs of the blue tinted territory past the crowds.

Up ahead Alice could see Master Seigfreid floating at the head of the crowd. They landed at the front of the crowd and found Lucia standing alongside Master Seigfried; in front of them stood two men.

On the left was an extremely tall fair skinned man with short brown hair and matching set of brown eyes. He had an intimidating muscular build, but his most peculiar features were the scar running horizontally across the bridge of his nose and the diagonal scar on his forehead. He wore a red dress shirt and black neck tie with a pair of casual black shorts and black boots. On top of that he wore a long white overcoat which partially hid the man's physique.

The man on the right had shaggy black hair that went down to his shoulders. He was clearly the older of the two and his scraggly beard made it clear that he was also one to not care about appearances. He wore a shawl that had small tears in it. Beneath the shawl he wore a black skin tight sweater that hugged his lean figure and black cargo shorts. To add to his messy appearance he also sported brown sandals that seemed to be falling apart. However, his most frightening feature was his incredible size. The man on the left already stood about a foot higher than Lucia who was an average height, but the man on the right was a clear head above his companion.

Adrienne and Alice inched closer to hear what their master, Lucia and the two men were discussing in the midst of the crowd.

"Nice of you to come back Vado," said Lucia with a hint of disinterest in her voice.

The man seemed to barely acknowledge Lucia. "Oh, is that you Lucia? I should have known by the smell of wasted talent."

The crowd went silent as Lucia's rage slowly crept out. As she prepared her anger filled rebuttal she caught a glance from Master Seigfried. It was one thing to fight with Vado, but to fight in front of Master Seigfried would only spell trouble. He always wanted his mages to get along. She swallowed her pride and retorted as calmly as possible.

"I see you're still on a mission to change the world then old man," she said with a hint of condescension.

Vado refused to tolerant her insolence, but knew better than to act out in his master's presence. He'd have to get her back later.

"You know damn well I'm only a few years older you and better to change the world than play gladiator in that waste of space coliseum," he shot back trying to decide which part of the comment he was more upset about.

Lucia prepared for her turn in what was sure to be a never ending exchange, but the taller of the men interjected. "Come on now; do you all have to be so angry so early in the day."

"Yes, I keep telling these kids that it's important to get along with their guild mates Auron," said Master Seigfreid. "Why, are you two being so shy, come over and meet your guild mate." He added motioning to Alice and Adrienne.

The pair was unaware that he had even noticed them and stood frozen now.

"Oh come on. I'm old, I'm not senile," he said waving them over again.

They walked over and introduced themselves to the pair of gentleman. As they finished Adrienne's excitement got the better of her. "Which one of you is The Harbinger?" she blurted out excitedly.

Master Seigfreid's laughter was the first sound to break the silence that had ensued.

Lucia shook her head in disgust and explained who the two men in front of them were. "Adrienne. This is Vado Boin, One of the first members to join the Eternal Knights and this" she said motioning to the man on the right "is Auron Stone."

Alice's confusion took hold of her now. "But, the bell rang. That should mean a Bell Kin returned."

"And one has," said Master Seigfreid laughing and pointing to Auron.

"I don't understand," said Alice. "I've never seen you before."

The giant man laughed it off and leaned down to the pair of girls. "It's been a few years since I came back home. I was away working on some different projects abroad."

He stood up straight again and looked around him at the different buildings around him. "It's nice to see that the city I designed is still in top shape," he said eyeing them from behind his cheeky grin.

"You built this city!" yelled out Adrienne and Alice in unison.

"Yup," he said through a proud chuckle. "When I was a little older than you, this city decided that it would try and improve its image by attempting a complete overhaul. I designed it and built the structure for it."

"Yea, he even built the coliseum later on" said Vado with clear disgust in his voice.

Auron chuckled at his companion's distaste for the coliseum. "You've got to let it go kid," he said slapping Vado in the back and nearly knocking him over.

Master Seigfreid, who had been laughing the whole time, finally composed himself enough to speak again. "This is Auron Stone, The Architect."

"Oh that's right, I forgot I had that title. Has The Harbinger been gone so long that people can get them confused with me instead?"

"Nope, Adrienne is a new member and I think you left before Alice even joined," answered Lucia while racking her brain for their dates of arrival and departure.

"Them?" interjected Adrienne. "Do you also not know who The Harbinger is?"

The older gentleman thought it over. "No. I know who they are. But they've put so much effort into keeping it a secret from everyone that I don't think I have the right to reveal any detail about them to anyone."

Before anyone could add anything more to the conversation, there was a series of loud noises from within in the crowd.

The first words the group of mages heard were "I swear you idiots are always in my way!" followed by flying townspeople fawning over the mage who had launched them away.

After a few moments Master Jade broke through to the front of the crowd. "Ah! I was right it is you. You old fart," he said before pulling the much taller man into a back breaking hug that lifted him off the ground.

Master Jade put him down and was met with a back breaking hug of Auron's own. "Ha, old man your grip's getting weak."

The group of mages and the town watched as the pair of middle aged men broke into several mini duels of arm-wrestling, push-ups and seeing who could lift more townspeople. When they were content with series of ties, Master Jade said "It's good to see you haven't lost a step out in the wild."

"You think I'd just let up because I was away you old fool. Anyway, I'm here to talk to you about the plan for thing I mailed you about," said Auron.

"Oh, right. Of course, of course," answered Master Jade as he cleared a pathway in the townspeople.

With the architect's departure, the crowd soon dispersed leaving the Eternal Knight mages and Master Seigfreid alone outside their guild.

"What? Why is he so friendly with Master Jade if he's with the Eternal Knights?" asked Adrienne.

Master Seigfreid thought for a moment and then explained the situation at hand. "Adrienne, in this town there are three guilds and we compete over everything and fight nearly every day. But we don't hate each other. We just have different views on the way this world works." He motioned to Alice and added "some of us have family in other guilds." He turned to Lucia "and some have friends in other guilds. But we learn to look past our differing views and enjoy the people we have in our lives."

He took a breath and continued in a cheerier tone "Now those two have been friends since they were small children. They grew up together and before Jade left this town and met me, he and Auron looked out for this city when it was a much darker place. And to answer your question, he isn't an Eternal Knight. He actually doesn't belong to any guild. Most Bell Kin don't."

Before Adrienne could ask any more questions about Jade and Auron, Vado interjected. "Yea, he only came this way because of me. We bumped into each other and he was lost so we took this way in."

"That's great Vado," said Alice jokingly. "Now let's get out of here before Master Narissa shows up too."

"Oh, I don't think we'll have to worry about that," said Lucia nonchalantly. "Those two haven't been on speaking terms in years. But Alice, I'm surprised you have time to lounge about. I was sure that I saw your name down for an exhibition match on the 17th."

Alice's face went pale. "Oh gosh. I forgot all about that. Come on Adrienne, I've got to go get ready for my match," she said running into the guild.

At the sound of the word match Adrienne perked up and raced behind her panicking friend.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 4:00 P.M, Inside the ruins North of Brightholt City<strong>

"Aobaaaa," whined Tally. "Can't we stop for a bit?"

Tally usually liked staying active, but walking around aimlessly in a ruin wasn't fun at all. The ruin was bland in design, but maintained a shimmery blue shade of color despite years of decay. The ceilings were high, but upon closer inspection, moss could be seen breaking free from the cracks and spreading across the wall.

She could tell that her words were falling on deaf ears. So she ran ahead of her short green eyed friend, stopped in front of her and in one breath she quickly blurted out "We've been walking for hours. I'm out of candy. Aren't you tired? It's nice and cool in here. Don't you have anything sweet to eat? My feet hurt. I don't even remember why we're here anymore."

The vein in Aoba's head swelled more and more with each question. She was accustomed to her younger partner's antics, but her patience was wearing thing. Just as she was about to explode, the ruins shook. They looked around at the dust and pebbles being shaken lose as the ruin settled down. It had been shaking sporadically since they had broken into the ruins, but the further in they went, the more violent the shaking became.

She slapped the back of Tally's head as she walked on ahead of her. "You see, we've got to find out what the hell is causing that." She called over her shoulder. "Ow!" said Tally clasping one hand to the back of her head. "Alright. Alright. I'm coming," as she ran after Aoba.

They ran down a corridor and at the end there were two directions for them to choose from. Either direction seemed to be a darker hallway. They gave each other an inquisitive glance and then they both yelled "Not splitting up."

They let out a giggle and then flipped a coin to decide which way to go. They went left and followed the new corridor and found themselves at yet another fork in the road. They decided to go right this time. And at the end of this corridor was another split.

"Ugh! How much further till this is over!" yelled Aoba, her anger slowly unraveling her neatly done hair.

Tally looked over at her small friend whose angry red face could be seen even through her veil. She struggled to hold in her laughter before letting it all burst out.

"What's so funny!" she yelled to her partner on the ground.

Tally managed to compose herself for a few seconds to squeak out "I thought you were supposed to be the calm one and I'm supposed to be childish. Hahaha. I mean take a look at yourself."

Aoba pulled out a compact mirror from within her kimono and took a look at her hair and face.

"Oh no," she exclaimed. "I've got to fix this now and stop laughing like an idiot Tally," snapped Aoba.

A few minutes passed and Aoba had reconstructed her perfect hair style and Tally had finally silenced most of her laughter. The occasional giggle would slip out when she remembered seeing her friend look even a little disheveled for the first time in her life.

"Ahem," said Aoba trying to regain control of the situation. "We've got to get a move on. We made it this far, but you and I both know that means there should be someone ahead of us and close behind us."

Tally silenced her giggling now; she had forgotten that the mayor issued this mission personally to all three guilds. His love of the coliseum usually forced him to issue his missions in reverse order of the coliseum rankings. Nova Eos had been given a head start and Scarlet Phantom couldn't have been far behind them. They were both sure that Scarlet Phantom's resident ruin expert would jump at the chance for a mission requiring her expertise.

"We've been making good time. Do you really think they could have caught us already?" said Tally worriedly.

Aoba thought it over for a moment. "I'm not sure, but Master Seigfreid trusted us with this mission. I don't want to disappoint him so let's get going."

Tally agreed and then they were off again. After a few more repetitions of long corridors with two turns they reached a stone door. They pushed past and stumbled into a circular room made of blue stone. Including the entrance they had just used, there were four entrances into the room.

"Which way now?" said Tally "If we keep going like this, we'll never find out what's causing the ruins to shake like this."

Before Aoba could answer, the door across from them opened and a tall man with long straight black hair falling down to his lower back and aristocratic features walked in. His hair framed his face and His eyes were an almond shape with a royal purple hue, while his skin was a pale in complexion. His body was lean, but bore the appearance of someone who had just recently put on muscle. He wore a long grey coat which covered most of his body and brown military boots. On his hands he wore white gloves.

It took a moment to scan the room and its inhabitants, but eventually his eyes landed on the two girls staring him down.

"Aoba?" he said confused "So I guess Master Seigfreid sent y…"

"Go" whispered Tally cutting him off. Everyone in the room looked at her. "Go Aoba Go!" yelled Tally as she cut off him off and pushed Aoba into the nearest unexplored corridor.

"Tally, what's wrong? It's just Rau." yelled Aoba as she struggled to gain her footing with her partner still pushing her along.

After a few moments they were both finally running and far behind them they heard the door they had just passed through open up.

"Rau isn't the problem," said Tally between breaths. "But we caught up to him already, then Francheska can't be far behind and I don't think any of want to run into her."

Aoba shuddered at the thought. The Scarlet Phantoms had a lot of battle hungry people throughout their ranks, but Francheska was always one bad day away from tearing through anyone in her way.

"You're right, I thought we had more time and I got side tracked when Nova Eos' mage turned out to be Rau," said Aoba.

"Guys, wait up!" yelled Rau from behind them. But they kept on running.

The corridor they were in was much longer than the last few they had traversed, but they seemed to be nearing the end because ahead of them there was sunlight leaking in. They reached the end and found themselves teetering at the edge of a ledge overlooking a grassy circular enclosed area from a few stories up. They scanned for a way to climb down, but didn't have enough time to consider any options because the ruins shook once more launching them from the ledge to the ground below.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 4:00 P.M, Nova Eos Guild Hall<strong>

"There's no way I'll be able to get approval for this Auron," said Master Jade in a defeated voice.

They were sitting at the bar and he was looking over a set of blueprints that Auron had designed for Nova Eos and could not see any way that the mayor would agree to ideas like this. He looked over to Auron and was met with wide mischievous grin.

Then it occurred to Master Jade almost immediately. He broke out into his own cheesy smile and said "But you wouldn't be here, if you didn't get approval already."

Auron broke out in laughter. "Took you much longer to realize than I expected."

He stood up and was eyeing different parts of the guild hall. Then he looked back over his shoulder at Master Jade. "Yeah it took a few weeks of convincing the mayor," said Auron nonchalantly. "I tried reminding him of all the good that me and Seigfreid building Alliance Hall did and he wouldn't budge. Eventually he warmed up to the idea when I told him it would bring more mages to Brightholt."

By the time he finished his sentence Jade had him in another backbreaking hug. "Oh, come on man," yelled Auron. "Let me down already. You're embarrassing me you old fool."

Jade let him down and Auron invited him outside to take one last look at the guild hall as it was from outside.

They walked out the door sealing the guild behind them and began discussing how the finished product was going to look when a young lady interrupted them.

"Achoo!" sneezed Auron. "You ever get the feeling that somebody just finished talking about you."

"Master Jade? What are you doing out here?" said a voice from behind them.

Master Jade turned to see who the owner of the voice was.

"Ah, Hazel. You're back already. I didn't expect you so soon." said Master Jade. "I take it everything went well." He added knowingly.

Jade was slyly scanning her for injuries that she might hide to save him worry. But from what he could tell, she was fine. She was unharmed. She was tall and still long, wavy brown hair that reached the small of her back. There was a streak of green on the right side and her skin was a lovely pale complexion. There was a beauty mark on the right side of her right eye and as they were her namesake, her eyes were a shade of hazel. There wasn't a speck of dirt on her clothes either. She wore a long white skirt and a white blouse with a green coat and tan sandals.

"Yup. No problems whatsoever Master Jade," She answered as Auron turned to join the conversation.

"Hazel? Jeez. How long have I actually been gone Jade?" said Auron looking between his friend and Hazel.

"Too long my friend," said Master Jade as he reminded Hazel who the frighteningly tall man to his right was. "Hazel, this is The Architect."

Her eyes went wide and she ran up to hug him. "Mister Auron, it's been so long."

Jade watched the pair and thought back to when Auron was always around. Auron had been in Brightholt at the inception of all three guilds and since they were close he always hung around Nova Eos. So the more senior members were sure to be happy to have him back. _Maybe Auron is right and we'll turn everything around starting now._

Jade broke away from his inner thoughts and said "Tell her why you're back Auron."

"Oh, right. I'll be redesigning the guild hall," said Auron in a matter of fact voice.

At first it seemed like a good idea to Hazel, but as she thought it over, she remembered how her guild master and Auron were always out of control when they were together and shuddered at thought of the end result.

"No!" she yelled. "Let me get my stuff out of my room first." She ran to the door to get inside and found that it was sealed.

"Why can't I get inside!" she said exasperatedly.

The two men were struggling to contain their laughter at this point. Master was the first to regain his self-control and said "Hazel, we're gonna begin work on the guild today, so everyone is locked out until after it's done."

When he saw her face gaze go blank he was able to see what had her worried. "Don't worry, we'll take care not to break anything," Jade tried to jokingly reassure her. "Anyhow, Jackie is supposed to be in the square by now and everyone should be at the coliseum later."

She walked away from the door defeated. "Please don't break anything," she pleaded.

Auron and Jade let out a few more laughs and agreed, sending her on her way.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 4:00 P.M, Scarlet Phantom. Mistress Narissa's office<strong>

Master Narissa sat alone in her office. Her office humongous; it took up the same space as 4 or 5 regular bedrooms. She sat behind a dark Oakwood desk that had small ghost-like figures engraved in the edge of the desk. The room itself was a warm rose like red color and had several bookshelves and bright red sconces placed throughout the room. She was known to value strength above all else and along the walls she had photos of what would currently be the personification of her own strength. There were six photos in the room; three on each wall. Each photo held a moving image of her six beloved S-class mages. The door across the room led into the guild and the door behind her led into her own private bedroom.

Right now she was disgusted with the way the day had turned out. She hadn't cared to see the results of the juggernaut match from earlier. She was trying to engineer a way to take Nova Eos down even further and with her current plan thwarted she could care less.

The entire guild was now silent because her mages were either training in the Scarlet Phantom's private training area, relaxing in the town or on a mission. She narrowed her eyes on the door across from her. She asked for several documents a little over a minute ago. Madeline was usually more than prepared for her master's requests and Narissa rarely had to ask for anything, but today was different. Madeline Sable was a special mission, so her pupil would be filling in for her.

"Fuyumi!" she yelled. "Hurry and bring me the documents I asked for."

Almost immediately a young girl ran into the office carrying a stack of papers.

She ran across the room and splattered the documents across her master's desk. Narissa glanced over the documents and then back up at the girl currently out of breath.

"Fuyumi," she said in a softer voice still laced with irritation. "Compose yourself."

The young girl stood up straight and began fixing her clothes and hair. Her hair was blood red much like her master's, but she had it styled in the shape of a tiara. She was dressed like a ballerina and had the body to match it. Lean and toned to accommodate her practice in her free time. The bodice she wore matched her blood red hair, but its lining was gold. She had on a white skirt which was, but the attachment between the chest piece and the skirt made it seem as if they were only held together by a thin line of red paint. Scattered throughout the skirt were all the cards of a deck with a heart suit. Despite the eccentricity of her dress her shoes were simply half red and half white ballerina shoes.

She finished fixing her hair and dress and when Master Narissa realized that the young girl wasn't speaking she spoke again. "Fuyumi, you know that you are more than welcome to speak in my presence. That rule no longer applies to you my dear girl."

Fuyumi reviewed the rule in her mind. You will only speak when spoken to unless you're a mage in the top twenty in the coliseum. A cheerful smile broke out across Fuyumi's face. "That's right!" she squealed while clapping her hands together. "I made it to number 18 this Grand Prix."

Master Narissa shook her head in approval. "Come my dear, take a seat and relax. It'll be just you and me until Madeline gets back."

Fuyumi's eyes widened. She longed for her master's approval and now she was being offered a seat at her table. "Any word from Francheska about the ruins to the North," asked Fuyumi as she sat.

Narissa was puzzled. She thought for a moment and then remembered that she had Fuyumi running errands all day so there was no way she'd have known about the job that Madeline and Francheska were on.

"I sent Francheska along with Madeline out East. There appears to be an issue with a town and some sort of wild beast. They specifically requested Madeline and Francheska," said Narissa with pride in her voice.

"And besides, Francheska's already explored that entire ruin by herself."

Fuyumi was already caught up in the idea of both Madeline and Francheska on a mission together. To most people, that seemed like the most likely pairing to bring nothing, but pain to anything in its way, but Fuyumi was star struck by the idea. Both of her idols working together was just too much to bear.

"Oh, I wish they would have taken me," she said crossing her arms like a small child.

Master Narissa watched the young girl. Even to her the transformation was odd. Outside the walls of this guild, she was a recluse. She'd hide behind her fellow mages and avoid people in general. Then in the ring it was a different story altogether. Watching her fight made the viewer feel cold and empty. She seemed to be emotionless and full of power similar to her idols. But here before Narissa, sat the wildly interactive Fuyumi who loved her guild mates and would play and train just as much as the next mage.

"Then I would have been all alone my dear," said Master Narissa.

Fuyumi cheered up immediately. She decided to see if she could push herself further into her master's good graces.

"Madam" she half whispered. "I thought I might inform you that a Bell Kin returned today."

Master Narissa shook her head knowingly. "Yes, I don't really care to see The Harbinger though."

Fuyumi's eyes widened. "Um, madam," she squeaked out.

"Out with it already Fuyumi!" yelled Narissa.

"It was The Architect who returned today madam."

The room went cold and the light in the sconces around the room died out immediately and then on cue with her scream, the room was deathly hot. "What!" she yelled loud enough so that her voice shook the entirety of the Scarlet Phantom territory.

"Leave me!" she yelled retiring to her quarters through the door behind her.

Fuyumi exited the room in a hurry. She closed the door behind her and let out a sigh. "She's amazing."

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 4:30 P.M, Town Square<strong>

"Tell me again why I have to go see Hazel," said Javier. He was walking alongside Jackie who had decided that bandages and all, she was going to meet Hazel.

Jackie still wasn't talking to him, but she had calmed down a bit and agreed to walk around the town with him. After they had started moving through the town, she quickly said that they were both going to see Hazel and then she returned to silence.

"Ah, come on Jackie. You can't stay mad at me and not even tell me what I did wrong," said Javier while he nudged her in the side.

She shot him a glare through the corner of her eyes that said don't dig yourself any deeper than you already are and he shut up for the rest of the walk.

They found themselves at Magdalena's restaurant sitting at an outdoor table on her terrace upstairs. The terrace was restricted to S-class mages or S-class mages who brought along other mages. The winding staircase entrance to the terrace was inside of Magdalena's restaurant, but seeing how very few people had access to it, it was fairly unknown. They were only sitting at the table in silence for a few minutes when Hazel entered the terrace floor.

Both girls started screaming in glee the moment they saw each other.

Almost in unison they screamed out "Sis!" and Hazel ran over to her fellow guild mate and pulled her into what seemed to be a never ending hug.

Hazel looked over Jackie's shoulder and saw Javier. "Javier!" she screamed out and dragged Jackie along with her and sucked him into her deathly hug.

"Hi, Hazel," he said gasping for breath.

"I'm much better now that I've seen two of my favorite guild mates," said Hazel.

She sat them all down. She sat on one side of the table with Javier next to Hazel and Jackie across from him. Then she immediately began talking.

"So, how has the guild been since I left. Quiet right? That's fine because I'm back now and we can do all sorts of different fun things. How has the coliseum been? Any of you rank up since I left?" her words tapered off into silence as she pieced together where Jackie's injuries must have come from.

Jackie had her head hung in depression again, but looked up to see why Hazel had stopped talking and caught her looking over her injuries. "No no no. It's fine. I'm fine. Don't worry about this Hazel. I'll be as good as new in no time," said Jackie in an attempt to reassure her friend.

Hazel could tell that this was probably a sour point for Jackie right. So she would be sure to come back to it again later. She shook her head understandingly and turned to ask Javier a question, but before she could start, the door to the terrace burst open and Lucia made her way over to them.

"Ahem," said Lucia motioning for Javier to clear the seat next to her friend.

He shook his head knowingly and moved around the table to sit next to Jackie.

"That's better," said Lucia coldly as she took the seat next to Hazel. All of the women at the table were deathly quiet and quickly exchanging glances much to Javier's confusion and then they burst into laughter.

"I can't believe you still fall for that Javier," said Lucia between laughter.

Javier relaxed and shook his head. "It's easy to fall for. You're so scary," he said joining in on the laughter.

All of the women kept laughing and then went silent almost instantaneously. "Who is scary?" asked Lucia her face devoid of all humor.

"Um. Uh. No one. No one is scary," he stammered out.

All of the ladies burst into laughter once more and Javier sunk into his seat. "I give up," he said.

The laughter died down after a bit and then Hazel remembered she was going to ask a question.

"Javier Montero. How has your training been going?" asked Hazel in her deepest interviewer voice as she held a pretend microphone up to him.

The sudden shift confused him, but he figured he'd play along. "Ah it's been going well, Ms. Rochelle. I've been working hard and I've moved up to number fourteen in the coliseum."

"Hmm. I see. That is an improvement," responded Lucia who had decided she would join in on the fun. "Do you have a ranked match coming up soon?" she added in a voice deep enough to match Hazel's.

"Uh. yeah. I'll be fighting against Marco Seifer," responded Javier.

"Oh, that'll be a tough one," said Hazel into her microphone. She held it up to Lucia now. "I think I'll go to my partner for some insight into this Marco Seifer."

"Yes, Hazel. This Marco Seifer is in fact a member of my guild. He's very fast and very strong," said Lucia trying to maintain the game they were playing, but her vanity got to her almost immediately and she broke character. "Though, he's not as strong as me," she sang out loud.

"Right. Right. Good information from Ms. Corazon," said Hazel. "One final question then Javier. Are you and Jacqueline Arison still not dating?" she added as she held her microphone up to the both of them.

Lucia fell out of her seat in laughter and both of their faces went red and their eyes went wide. It was quiet for a few moments and then Javier got up and said "yea, I'll see you all at the coliseum later."

"Oh come on Javier," teased Hazel as Javier left the restaurant with his face dyed red.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 5:00 P.M, Eternal Knights<strong>

"So you're not nervous at all," asked Adrienne as she watched Alice pick an outfit to wear for her match later.

Alice stopped for a moment and thought it over. "No, I usually don't fight too often, because I try and stick to exhibition fights with high winning pay outs."

Adrienne was glad to have met Alice and to find out that she was nothing like her sister, but in the few days that they had been with one another they hadn't really seen each other's magic. She was curious now. "Hey, do you use the same kind of magic as your sister?" asked Adrienne.

"Nope," said Alice as she pulled out what seemed to be a blue version of her sister's combat gear.

Adrienne scratched her and thought about what other similarities Alice might have with her sister as Alice went into the bathroom to change.

"What magic do you use then?" asked Adrienne. "Are you as strong as your sister?"

Alice emerged from the bathroom shaking her head. "You've come this far without seeing magic. A few more hours won't kill you Adrienne. And I'm definitely not as strong as she is, plus she enjoys fighting almost as much as you do. I just try and relax and have a good time."

Adrienne shook her head and then realized she couldn't wait anymore. She dropped down to her knees and began pleading. "Oh, can't I just have a peek at your magic Alice," asked Adrienne. "Oh, I know," she said as she jumped to her feet. "How about we have a quick match?" she added

"Adrienne, I have a match in a few hours," said Alice as if it was the most obvious answer Adrienne's question.

"I know," said Adrienne matter of factly.

Alice laughed it off and walked out of the room calling to her friend behind her. "Come on, let's get to the arena," said Alice as she left the room.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 5:00 P.M, Inside the ruins North of Brightholt City<strong>

"Aoba. Tally. Wake up. You guys gotta get up."

These were the words that caused Aoba was the first to stir from her sleep. She woke up to an immense headache.

"Ow!" she yelled as she sat herself up. "What happened?"

Her eyes caught a glimpse of the ledge above her that she had been standing on and the not moving shape of Tally to her right and the events of the last few hours came back to her. She saw Rau trying to tend to what seemed like a gash in her arm and she rushed over to help.

"Tally, come on. You gotta get up Tally!" she frantically yelled out.

Aoba's voice reached Tally and she awoke from her unconsciousness as if she'd just taken a slight nap. "Did you get the candy yet Aoba?" she asked while stretching and yawning.

A tear broke free from behind Aoba's veil and she threw her arms around Tally's neck strangling her in the embrace.

"Geez Aoba. If I knew you'd be so affectionate when I woke up. I think I'd take naps more often," said Tally.

Aoba let out a giggle and then pointed to the ledge where they were last together. "You weren't napping, we fell from up there. That's why your arm is cut," explained Aoba.

"Why were you two running from me in the first place?" asked Rau. He had been quiet for most of the exchange, but now that he was sure they were more or less alright he wanted to know.

Aoba was the one who answered. "We weren't running from you Rau," she said while clutching the growing lump on the side of her head. "We just figured that if we caught up to you, then Francheska couldn't have been far behind us and."

"Ah, I get it," he said waving off the rest of the explanation. "I don't think I want to run into her down here either."

The ruins shook once more and after exchanging a few reassuring glances they got up and proceeded to move out of the grassy enclosure they had fallen into. There was one exit and this time, Aoba and Tally were more than willing to travel together with Rau because of their injuries.

They pushed through the door and found themselves in another circular room. This was a dark blue color and along the wall were several inscriptions in another language. There was moss coming from several cracks and the sole source of lighting was a large circular cut in the stone ceiling that let light shine down onto a giant sized stone tablet. The stone tablet also had inscriptions on it. But the most peculiar thing in the room was not the tablet, but the young man that stood in front of it.

He had thick black hair that was long and untamed. It seemed to part at the top of his head framing the rest of his face. He had green eyes and a sharp jawline that gave him the appearance of being handsome. When he turned to face the group of mages, s small scar could be seen on the side of his right eye. He had on dark blue jeans and a blue and white button flannel shirt. The shirt was left unbuttoned so the black undershirt he wore could be seen. His hands were taped up and he wore black sneakers with the red laces that formed several X's on the shoes.

He had turned to the group for a moment and then turned back to the tablet. He focused his magic into his hand and then punched the tablet dead on. The group looked where he had just lifted his fist from on the stone. It was clear he had been here for a while, but the stone itself had taken very little damage and barely had any cracks in it at all.

Aoba was the first to speak. "Hey, what's going on here?" she asked the young man. When she realized that he was ignoring her, she ran forward a bit and explained who they were and that he had to stop whatever it was that he was doing.

Again her words were ignored. "Are you listening?" she yelled. "You better stop or…"

There was a loud explosion as a pillar of fire burst through the wall and into the room, but Aoba didn't have time to deal with it. The sheer magnitude of the magical pressure that caused it had brought her to her knees. She looked around for the owner of the force and saw Rau and Tally struggling just a bit better than she was. The next culprit in her mind had to be the man in front of them, but when she was finally able to raise her head and catch a glimpse of him he was in an equally pitiful state.

From the hole caused by the fire she heard a voice ask "So what's going on here?" it asked as its owner stepped into the room slowly. As it approached the pressure on the room's inhabitants became fiercer. When it was next to Aoba, she felt as if she would suffocate and then the pressure was gone.

"You can't be serious. I let out some magical energy and you all fall to your knees. Pitiful. Every one of you," said the voice.

Rau was the first to recover and raised his head after he had caught his breath. His eyes widened in fear. "Sai!" he yelled as he tried to gulp down his fear. "Why are you here?"

The man Rau had addressed as Sai wore a skin tight sleeveless black shirt with the Scarlet Phantom logo on the back in dark red. His dark red pants had two grey belts on top and he also wore a pair of gunmetal grey steel toed boots. His blond hair was spiky and wild. His eyes were blue and his ears appeared to be point. He had been thinking over Rau's question for a while, but he turned to his fellow mage and said "I'm here to find out what's been causing the disturbance in the ruins," he said in a matter of fact voice. Then a devilish grin spread across his face and he added "And it seems, I completed the mission first."

Aoba finally recovered and began her argument. "What are you talking about Sai?" she asked as she stood to her feet and finished catching her breath. "We were here first."

He looked down at the shorter lady and his eyes seemed to look straight through her. "You're mistaken," he said. He turned to the nameless young man in question and finished his thought. "You may have been here first, but the mission rewards whoever comes back to Brightholt first. If I beat you all down and drag him back, then I was first."

Rau stood up now. "You really plan on fighting all of us Sai. Even you're not that crazy," he said calmly.

"Look at you all. Most of you can barely stand," said Sai as the magic inside of him slowly built up. Then he yelled "But even if that wasn't the case. I am Number 6, Sai Nuria!"

Aoba quickly retreated to where Tally and Rau were and the three of them built up as much energy as quickly as they could.

Rau took off his coat, revealing his skin tight blue shirt, green cargo pants and the muscle that unending training had brought him. He dropped the coat to the side and the floor broke beneath it.

Tally was the first to attack. She focused her energy into her arms and darted towards Sai.

"Violet Djinn Slayer's Wing" and she aimed to connect her fist with Sai's face.

He caught the fist, lit his own arm ablaze and threw her into the wall across the room.

"Couture de Affûtée" said Aoba as she ran towards Sai and sliced at him with her sharpened sleeves.

He effortlessly dodged each attack with simple side steps. When she lunged into him, he jumped behind her and fired a kick at the back of a vulnerable Aoba.

Rau jumped in between them and caught the brunt of the kick, but it still sent him and Aoba flying into the wall.

Tally jumped back out now and tried to connect a kick with Sai. She yelled "Violet Djinn Slayer's Talon" as her leg decimated the ground where he had been standing.

She looked around for him and found him above her. As he began his descent he built up the flame in his hand and then unleashed it as he collided with Tally.

"Pyro Sphere!"

Tally dodged the initial impact of the spell, but the force caught her as she landed and knocked her off her feet.

"Hollow Ray!" yelled a voice from within the hole in the wall and a beam of dark purple magic blasted out and hit Sai in his back.

Rau emerged from the hole and charged forward.

Sai prepared to dodge him, but as the man came close he found that he couldn't move.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Aoba finishing a spell of her own.

She was breathing heavy, but between breaths she could be heard saying "Shear." Several thin threads, that were nearly invisible, had Sai stuck in place.

Rau used his momentum to land a punch on Sai and send him sliding across the room. He got up to retaliate, but found that he was locked in place again. Tally stood to her feet again and she and Rau began building up their energy once more.

"Violet Djinn Slayer's Hymn!" yelled Tally.

Rau followed up by releasing several small dark orbs. As he closed his fist they all darted towards Sai. "Dark Erasure!"

They were sure they hit him for a moment, but when the magic subsided their joy faded. Where Sai stood was a body composed entirely of flame. The flame's subsided and revealed an unharmed Sai.

He was shaking his head in disbelief at their lack of strength.

Then Sai released the spell he had been building since his captivity began. "Pyro blast" he said coldly and a flame burst forth with him as the epicenter. Tally, Aoba and Rau were all sent crashing into the walls around him.

Sai scanned the room for any more threats and then turned his attention the boy who had been quiet throughout the entire exchange. He smiled. "Well, that was fun. Come on. Let's go," said Sai as he motioned for the boy to follow him.

The boy looked around the room at the damage that had been caused and then a sly smile broke out on his face.

He built up his magic and said "Helle Platten des Zorns wird Ihr letzter Anblick sein!"

His arms became coated in steel and his magical power intensified. "Let's go!" he yelled out before joining in on the fight.

He caught Sai off guard and the fist connected with his abdomen. As Sai stood doubled over in pain the boy raised his fist above Sai in preparation to drop it into his Sai's back.

The fist came hammering down and Sai caught it. He ignited his entire body and built up the magic inside himself.

The boy swung his other fist and that was caught as well. He twisted both arms and brought the boy to his knees.

Sai had a look of twisted pleasure on his face. "Woo!" he yelled out to no one in particular. "I would have never guessed I'd see this magic here today," said Sai looking at the fists currently trapped within his own.

Tally, Aoba and Rau were currently stumbling out of the broken walls.

"Hey. Idiots," He called to the three other mages. "You see what magic are friend here has?"

Sai looked at the boy once again and it clicked in his head. "What's your name?" he said as he twisted his captive's hands.

He let out a yell of pain and said "Aeden. Aeden Rythmia"

Sai laughed a once more. "Looks like I've got a family reunion to attend" he said as he knocked Aeden unconscious and threw him over his shoulder. "See ya in Brightholt, idiots," he said to the three mages still reeling from the fight.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 7:00 P.M, The Coliseum – Arena B<strong>

Alice stood in the arena currently and across from her was Junjo. The referee came down from the ceiling and began the initiation of the match.

"The following match is an exhibition style match. The first person to knock their opponent out of the arena once is the winner. The referee signaled for the outer ring of the arena to be retracted. The outer ring slowly retracted revealing that it usually covered a 30 foot drop into water. Also if either participant fails to win within three minutes then the match will be a draw and both participants will split the prize money of 50,000 Jewels."

He turned to Javier and began "Number 19, Junjo Rosario, are you ready?"

"Well, I hate to fight a lady, but I guess I've got no choice. I'm ready," responded Junjo.

The Lacrima Referee turned to Alice and said "Number 31, Alice Sable, are you ready?"

She flashed Junjo a friendly smile and said "Yup."

With that the referee shot into the air above them and announced for the arena to hear. "You May Begin!"

Junjo was still on the fence about fighting Alice, but he needed to win this match. It was important. "Sorry about this Alice, maybe we can go on a date afterwards. I promise to make this up to you."

"Mecha Take Over: Mortar Chamber!" yelled Junjo and his entire chest rematerialized into a metal chest plate. His chest opened and revealed 6 square slots, each housing a small rocket.

"Are you sure about this Alice?"

She maintained her smile and sat down in the middle of the arena.

Adrienne had been sitting in her seat shocked. She was sitting in the crowd with Lucia and Hazel. She had seen the penalty for challenging someone out of your league very recently. "If Alice knew she was ranked 31st, why would she challenge someone 12 numbers above her?" she asked Lucia.

Lucia was lost in her own thoughts and responded in disgust. "What? What are you talking about?"

She looked down at the arena and pieced together Adrienne's question. "Oh don't worry. She'll be fine."

"But she doesn't use the same magic as her sister, what makes you think she'll be ok?" asked Adrienne who was starting to panic as Junjo finished his preparations.

"Fire!" he yelled and the 6 rockets came hurdling towards Alice. They collided and the spot which she was sitting in was now covered in smoke and fire.

When it cleared, Junjo's eyes went wide. Before him, Alice sat with her legs criss-crossed. She was still smiling at him and her hands were in neatly in her lap, but behind her stood a gigantic golden statue. It had two legs and four faces. Each of its faces was a different expression. On its left side it had fifteen arms and on its right side it had sixteen arms. Each of the arms was long enough to clear the arena in its shortened form. It had six of its arms currently outstretched in front of the smiling redhead.

Adrienne sat perfectly still in shock.

Lucia caught a glimpse of it and laughed bringing Adrienne back to reality. She shook off her shock and asked "What the hell is that?"

That is Alice's magic. The thirty-one armed stone cherub.

Back in the Arena Junjo stood in shock. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but a quick glance at the clock that the referee held said there was one minute and fifty-seven seconds left.

He materialized more rockets and began an attempt to hit Alice.

"Fire!" he yelled over and over again. As the rockets closed in on Alice, she closed her eyes and the statue opened its eyes. Then began deflecting each and every rocket away from its master.

"Thirty-one? That's such a weird number," said Adrienne.

Lucia shook her head in agreement, but said "The number thirty-one is important to her. It's no coincidence that she is also number thirty-one in the coliseum. She purposely gets there every cycle and stops trying to go further.

Adrienne was listening to Lucia while watching what seemed to be the perfect defense.

"I don't understand why she said that Madeline is stronger than her. With ability like that, she could easily catch up to her," exclaimed Adrienne.

"No," answered Lucia coldly. "The gap is too far for her to catch up. She'd have to come up with a new means of using her ability."

"What are you talking about?" asked Adrienne. She was in the process of trying to figure out what could be the downfall to Alice's magic, when the face currently looking at Junjo shattered leaving behind a hole. The head twisted ninety degrees to the left and revealed another face.

"What was that?" asked Adrienne.

"That is the reason why I say that Alice can't catch Madeline with this alone. Every thirty one seconds one of the faces will shatter and when they're all gone. Alice is out of magic.

"Wow, that's insane. So she's only able to fight for about two minutes?" asked Adrienne.

Lucia laughed. "Yup, but don't feel sorry for her just yet. Madeline might be stronger, but Alice is certainly smarter. Alice only fights 3 minute exhibition battles. So for two minutes and four seconds she is untouchable because that statue will continuously defend her with its life. Junjo probably forgot to do his homework on his opponent and didn't know about her ability. He wasted time in that fifty-six second window by feeling sorry for her. So she summoned the statue at the two minute mark in the fight."

"That's incredible. There's no way he can win then?"

Lucia thought for a moment. "Eh, it's unlikely. But it's for exactly this reason that I believe that Alice is far crueler in battle than Madeline. For two minutes she plays an unlosable game."

Down in the arena, Junjo had been firing non-stop and was getting more and more tired. He kept thinking to himself that he was the only one who had been on offense for the entire fight. There was a minute and ten seconds left on the clock.

As he finished the thought, one of the statue's arms swept at him and jumped to dodge it only to be slammed into the ground by a hand from above.

He struggled to get to his feet and dispelled his mortar take over.

"Mech Take Over: Double Gatling!" His shoulders mechanized and then two gatling guns formed out of them. He began firing magic bullets believing that he could simply outgun the thirty-one arms.

The statue used several arms to completely cover Alice. Another face broke and then it resumed its attack on Junjo.

He had to dodge several hands from above and from in front of him. The statue was slowly forcing him to the edge. When he reached the edge, he stopped firing.

Another face broke and Junjo decided to match defense with defense. He dispelled his guns.

"Mech Take Over: Alloy Guard!" His whole body covered itself in metal plates. He clamped his feet into the ground and awaited the blow that was sure to come from in front of him. He was sure that he could withstand it without being knocked off the ledge.

A few seconds passed and then he felt weightless.

Several of the hands had slammed down around him propelling him into the air. A final hand came from even higher above him and swatted him away from the arena floor and into the water.

The referee descended as the stone giant dissipated and Alice jumped to her feet very excitedly.

"The winner is number 31, Alice Sable!" shouted the referee.

"Yay!" shouted Alice as she went to help Junjo out of the water and collect the prize money.

There was a loud earthquake like noise in the direction of the Nova Eos guild and from the arena people could see a large object looming over their territory. The Nova Eos members in the stadium all exchanged worried glances and darted in that direction.

* * *

><p><strong>October 17, X791, 7:30 P.M, Nova Eos Guild Hall<strong>

The members of Nova Eos arrived at what would have been their guild hall and a combination of fear, shock and excitement took hold of them. Where the guild once stood, a gigantic tree now lived.

The doors burst open and Master Jade and The Architect walked out.

"Phew!" said Auron looking at his friend. "That was harder than it looked."

"Yup, you're right. My back kind of hurts now," added Master Jade. "Oh, everyone's already here."

They looked at the group of mages surrounding them and in unison said "Welcome to the new Nova Eos Guild Hall!"

From the outside, the building was frightening. This was mostly because it now barely resembled a building. The base of their guild was now a gigantic tree. What was once a rundown build seemed to be scattered throughout a gigantic tree that sprung up in a matter of hours. Auron and Jade opened the doors at the base of the tree and led the guild members into the first floor of their tree shaped guild house. The first floor was still decorated in green, but now the floors and walls were that of the tree they were in. It was a dark Oak wood color. Where ever there had been a knot in the tree on the first floor was bored open to create windows. The air smelled of a combination of maple and pine. Most of the locations of different rooms on the first floor seemed to be unchanged, but their design was now that of a cool green paint and natural tree flooring.

Hazel walked in and felt the bar and the walls and said "It's soft to the touch!" This spurred the rest of the guild members to try it out. The walls were indeed soft, while maintaining their natural tree state. Surely the byproduct of different kinds of magic.

"But what about the rooms?" asked Junjo as he limped into the guild.

"Ahh, the rooms," said Master Jade as he motioned for Auron to lead them to the area directly across from the bar. It was a combination of vines and branches, but when you touched it with magic. It opened up and revealed a circular platform comprised of vines and different bark.

Auron got on the platform and signaled for a few people to follow along. When they got on, He said "residential," to no one in particular and the platform quickly elevated them to another floor. "While they're going up there, does anyone want to see our training center?"

"We don't have a training center," said Kai.

"Correction Kai, we didn't have a training center," retorted Master Jade.

Master Jade placed his hand on the vines again. And another elevator platform took shape. They all got on and it took them down. He stepped out of the elevator and said "We're currently beneath the tree. He pointed at several giant tree-like structures and said "these are the roots of the tree." He went over and touched one and as the roots began to glow, the entire area was illuminated. "And this is our training facility," he said as began showing them the different weight areas, sparring arenas and relaxation stations.

Auron stepped out into the long wooden hall way and continued his explanation.

"I'm sure you noticed from outside that where the guild once stood is the tree that we are currently in," he said with pride on his face. "The main floor is situated at the base of the tree and this floor is where all of the rooms are. It is located in the center of the tree." The guild members ran through the halls looking for their rooms.

"Oh thank you. Everything is still where I left it," shouted Hazel.

"See, I keep my promises Hazel. We had some help with that part, but all of your rooms are intact. The flooring and walls might be different, but other than that it's fine.

"What about the S-class floor?" asked Jackie.

"Of course," Auron instructed the rest of the guild members to take the elevator back down and find Master Jade. Then he directed Hazel and Jackie to follow him. He led them around the corner and to a much smaller wooden staircase winded up for a few flights and then they were at a door comprised of what seemed to be more vines. "This door will only open for S-Class Nova Eos mages," he said with a sly smile on his face.

Jackie placed her hand on the door and the vines shrunk into the floor and walls allowing them passage. What Jackie and Hazel saw was beautiful.

They were in the very top of the tree and the sunset was bursting in past the leaves of the tree. And just above them floated Alliance Hall.

"So what do you all think?" asked Auron eagerly.

"It's wonderful" they both said in unison.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

_**Special Thanks:**_

Special thanks to Raiyane

Special Thanks to all of the readers. If I haven't told you yet, I appreciate you all reading, reviewing and subscribing more than you'll ever know.

Special Thanks to The Imposter. You haven't seen it yet, but they've also contributed to the story a great deal.

Special Thanks to Barrett M107 for his contributions to the story and if you don't know, he's got an amazing story on his page.

Special Thanks to Reven228 Was the fight with Rau and Sai in it weird for you because I found it to be the funniest luck of the draw so far.

**How's it going?**

I want you all to be completely honest with me about anything that comes to mind. If you have an idea or a critique or I'm messing up your character, please let me know and we'll work on it.

If you ever find yourself curious about when a chapter is going to be released, the tentative date will be on my profile.

A few readers rightly reprimanded my lack of detail on the Nova Eos Guild Hall. Yup, I was being lazy. I knew I wanted to do this the whole time and didn't want to paint an elaborate picture and then paint over it again.

The sneeze was me trying to reference that joke that when you sneeze it means someone just finished talking about you. I'm sure that went over a lot of people's head because of my poor writing.

Another writer had a post-chapter event recently and it reminded me how much fun a certain type of game genre was. So if you know what I'm talking about, I'd greatly appreciate game suggestions from that genre.

I hope you all enjoyed the match between Alice and Junjo. The match up was PoisonBanana's reward for winning the post chapter event last update.

I also got a message about what other manga I read or would be willing to do a fanfiction for. I'll update my profile with other manga that I read, but the only one that I'd have an idea for would be a One Piece story so far. Oh well, if I ever decide to write it, I'll let you all know.

A few readers are under the impression that since there are three guilds the members should all hate everything about each other all of the time… I disagree…

I'm so grateful for all of you that were patient while my laptop was being uncooperative. Two weeks is a long time to go without updating and I'll try to make that not happen again. Thanks to everyone who checked in to see if I was alive as well, most of those messages were pretty funny.

**S-class openings update:**

Scarlet Phantoms – Closed

Nova Eos – Closed

Eternal Knights – Closed

So all mages henceforth would be joining the guild or would be a regular member. There's always the S-class trials…

I'd prefer to get submissions from people who never submitted before. But don't be afraid to send me an OC if you come up with one.

**Special Submission:**

**Djinn Slayer**

The submission guide for this will follow the same form, but you will have to discuss it with me. A few rules:

Submissions are now open to everyone.

You'll PM me your interest. I'll explain how the race works. Then I'll let you pick from the different types djinn slayers that I have been given and you'll message me back your form.

I will only accept one djinn slayer.


	5. Family Ties

**Author Note**

Hello everybody. Some quick stuff before the chapter.

Someone mentioned the "time line" in each chapter is confusing. I'm sorry about that. I usually start each scene with the date, time and location because there are a lot of different people that I want to cover in each chapter and it helps me organize it. That's why sometimes; the headings are completely the same except for the location. All that means is that both of those scenes happened at the same time. I hope that helps.

I wanted to know if anyone had any pairings for missions that they were interested in. A team they thought might be fun to see or be a part of. Thanks in advance.

* * *

><p><strong>October 19, X791, 6:00 A.M, Alliance Hall<strong>

Early in the hours of a new day most of the city was still asleep. But up above them the voice of a usually calm and in control Narissa was filling Alliance Hall with ear piercing screams of anger every few seconds.

"Two Days!" She screamed to Jade and Seigfreid. "I had to wait two days for this meeting to be held."

She walked over to the window and pointed to the Nova Eos guild hall. "Now someone is going to tell me why this eyesore is towering over part of my city!"

While Narissa was more enraged and energized than ever before, both Master Seigfreid and Master Jade were half awake. Master Seigfreid floated above his usual seat drifting in and out of consciousness and Master Jade had fallen asleep on top the circular table in the center of the room.

She stared at the pair and became even more infuriated. Her anger slowly boiling until, ever so slightly, a small flame came to life in her palm.

One of the many doors to the meeting room opened and a very round man of average height walked in. His short black hair was slowly receding into a widow's peak and he wore a grey suit that fit his roundish figure snuggly. His mustache was twirled endlessly and gave him the appearance of a garden variety villain, but his disposition was entirely contradictory. He bounded into the room smiling and laughing.

"Oh, come now Narissa. There's no need for such hostility," he said as he took inventory of the mages in the room.

At the sound of another voice, Jade awoke from his sleep and said "Morning Mayor Clark," pausing to yawn between each word and then falling asleep immediately after.

"Finally!" yelled Narissa as she dispersed the flame in her hand. She stalked over to the shorter man and began berating him with questions.

"How could you allow that monstrosity to be built? When was it even built?" She paused and pointed at a drooling Jade now. "All of my plans for renovations have been shot down and theirs happen without a kink. This isn't right."

The mayor maintained his happy grin throughout the entire one-sided exchange. "Yes, all of your plans have been denied Narissa, but that's because all of your plans don't take into account the people around it."

He walked over to the window and peered at the gigantic tree. "Hmm. The blueprints for this tree were perfect. Not one thing wasn't accounted for by Jade's associate."

Narissa narrowed her eyes at the mayor as he turned back to her. "What associate?" she said as anger laced voice and the different pieces of the last few days' events began to fit together.

The mayor looked to the area of the room for where he had expected the associate to be and then he looked to the door he had entered through. This particular door led to his office back on the ground.

He walked over to the door and peaked into it. From where Narissa stood she could hear him talking.

"You can't hide in here," said the mayor in a sterner than usual voice. Then he turned and walked back into the room with an even broader smile. Behind him now stood Auron.

"Now," said the mayor. "Explain to everyone here what you told me." He turned to the floating Master Seigfried and shook him awake. "Listen up Roy," he added as he regained some of his previous sternness.

He began his explanation for everyone, but kept his eyes fixed on Narissa. "I spent the last few weeks designing the new Nova Eos Guild. I tracked down the owners of every home that could be affected by it and explained what I was planning. The area around the tree is mostly Nova Eos' personal space and everyone who could be affected by the tree's presence was addressed in advance. All of their personal qualms were all taken into account when I designed this."

"There's no way anyone could do that, not even you," she shot back.

"And yet, I did, Narissa," said Auron.

"I could care less about the giant tree on the other side of town, but husbands and wives shouldn't fight so early in the morning," chimed Seigfreid causing Jade to burst out in laughter.

"Ex!" yelled Narissa and Auron in unison never breaking eye contact with one another.

"Oh, that's right. Forgive me. I'm getting rather old," said Seigfreid playfully.

Auron was the first to break his intense staring contest with Narissa.

"And senile," said Auron as he shook his head and tried to stifle a laugh.

Narissa broke next and her expression suddenly became gloomier. "Have you spoken to them recently?" she asked.

Auron looked her over and then said "The twins? Of course, I saw them just before coming to Brightholt."

Her demeanor changed once more and possessed a slight gleam of hopefulness. "So they're close? Are they coming back? How long ago was this?"

"No," Auron answered quietly. "After the way you acted. I wouldn't be surprised if you never got to see them again." He added before walking through the mayor's door.

As he disappeared out of sight he called back "Careful, Narissa. If you keep this up, people might actually think you have a heart."

Narissa recognized her lack of composure and immediately shook off the remnants of anything, but cold-heartedness.

"Fine. If that's all…" said Narissa before she was cut off.

"I have one more piece of business," said the mayor.

He walked over to the table and made sure that he had all three guild master's attention.

"My son has sent word that he and his team of hunters will be making a trip back."

All three guild master's glare intensified at the mention of the mayor's son.

The mayor continued now that he was sure of their attention. "He says he's got something to liven up the coliseum even more." He had a mischievous grin across his face that seemed to be hiding all sorts of plans.

He headed for his door now. "It's sure to be entertaining," sang the mayor as he walked back into his office. He closed the door behind him and his entrance to Alliance Hall solidified back into the stone wall.

The three guild masters sat quietly for a moment, knowing that this would mean that some of their mages would be facing something fierce in the weeks to come.

* * *

><p><strong>October 19, X791, 6:00 A.M, East of Brightholt City<strong>

Madeline sat entirely focused on the task at hand. Beside her sat her guild mate Francheska. She had a pale complexion and seemingly cool and calm hazel eyes. Like most days, she had her brunette hair in a ponytail to keep her troublesome bangs from impeding her vision. She was dressed in a loose black tank top and her off grey sports bra was just barely visible revealing her large bust and toned physique. She had on grey sweatpants with a large Z on the back pant leg, white running shoes and her knuckles were bandaged.

Francheska had no issues with wanting to complete a job without a hitch, but Madeline always took the intensity to another level. She had her eyes fixed on this singular route for the last half a day and Francheska was sure that she hadn't slept. Working together from time to time made her accustomed to Madeline's disposition. It also made it understandable that their perfect success rate with missions made them highly recommendable to the nearby village.

They had been informed that an illegal guild was regularly transporting wild animals through the nearby village called Kairos and they were using this route to accomplish this goal.

"We've been staked out on this route for the last day. It took almost no time to get here and now we've just been waiting in a bush by the roadside," said Francheska breaking the silence they had been in for the last few hours.

She waited another moment before continuing. "If you don't get some rest you'll be useless when something does happen."

Madeline quickly jumped to her feet and pointed out ahead of them. "The truck up ahead matches the description," she said.

The truck about to drive by was all white and was pulling a thirty foot trailer with white cloud designs all across it. Madeline looked to Francheska and said, "That certainly looks big enough to contain wild animals."

As it passed, Madeline formed a sphere around herself and through a quick jab, a large arm burst forward from the sphere and hit the trailer in its side knocking the truck off the road and upside down.

After a few moments two men crawled out of the truck and staggered to the feet. They were dressed in black cam soldier uniforms, but one of them had on a red beret and the other had on a blue beret. Both of their faces were covered by black masks only revealing their eyes.

"Who the hell are you? Do you know who you're messing with little girls?" asked the one in blue beret.

Still stammering to catch his breath, the one in red said "No, we can have some fun with them first. Then we'll fix the truck and the shipment."

He turned back to the women before him and began building a fire in his hands. He took his eyes off them for a moment to look at his flame. Only as he looked back up at them did he notice the two gigantic hands enclosing around him.

The flame was suffocated and a few moments later there was a snap and Madeline released the lifeless corpse. It fell to the ground and the man with the blue beret's face was held fear. He turned and made a run for the truck.

He was able to undo the latch on the back before he effortlessly swatted away by Madeline. He stumbled to his feet unsure of where he was and then fell to his knees. His eyes had a glossy look as he fought to stay conscious.

"You're lucky," said Francheska as she walked up to him. "We only need one of you alive for questioning."

She emphasized each word of her questions. "What are you shipping?" she asked.

There was no reply. So she pulled him to his feet and continued the questioning

"Who are you working for?" she asked more intensely.

He gasped for air and struggled to say "Re..gal..lia Corps"

"You ever heard of anything called Regalia Corps, Madeline?"

Madeline was inspecting the truck. The trailer was empty, but she was half-listening to the interrogation. "Yup. It's supposed to be a dark guild. But I wouldn't really count these two as mages," she said continuing her inspection.

The man let out a sharp gasp and began coughing up blood. Then a few moments later he stopped breathing.

"Ugh, you're too aggressive Madeline. I could've asked him a few more questions," said Francheska in disgust.

"Yeah. Sorry," said Madeline half interested. "Isn't it weird that there is no shipment?"

"What do you mean?" asked Francheska.

"Well, they were heading to town, so there is supposed to be some wild animal in the trailer, but there is nothing."

As she finished her statement she was knocked back across the road.

Where she stood there was a slight distortion. A large reptilian creature slowly de-camouflaged. It stood on its hind legs at around 10 feet tall and while it was currently a lime green color it had previously blended in well enough for Madeline and Francheska to not notice its presence.

Francheska was sure Madeline would be fine, so she prepared to fight the creature by herself.

She built up her magic and activated it as quickly as possible.

"Hell's calling: Spüren Sie die Feuer der Hölle auf euch!"

Her arms were slowly lined with pitch black markings. The aura she released slowly became more and more menacing. The fearsome creature before her acknowledged it and fell into a crouching position.

It lunged at where she stood and she jumped above it in a fraction of a second. She dove at where it had landed and it slithered out of the way just barely.

The ground cracked beneath her and she used her now monstrous strength to break loose a piece of the earth and hurl it at the beast.

The beast stood its ground and shattered it with its tail, causing debris to cloud its vision.

Francheska darted towards him and connected a fierce punch with its head, knocking it off its front legs for a moment.

The creature let out a roar and stood on its hind legs again.

Then it was silenced by a terrifying magical pressure across the road. "You messed up. I might have let you spar for a bit," said Francheska to the confused creature.

The next sound they both heard was Madeline screaming "Janus".

The creature attempted to quickly blend in with its surroundings. As half of its body finished its camo, a giant red arm holding Janus pierced its torso.

Madeline had a crazed look in her eyes and a bit of blood coming out of split lip. She used her giant arms to hook Janus into the creature's torso. She stood inside her sphere and lifted her arm in the air, the giant arm copying her as she did so. The creature hung pierced in the air. Then she motioned for the arm to punch the ground continuously.

For the next few moments, the giant reptile's body collided with the ground non-stop. Then it was lifeless. She released her magic and reclaimed Janus from its corpse.

"You've gotta learn not to hold a grudge," said Francheska as she rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>October 19, X791, 7:00 A.M, Outside Brightholt City Gates<strong>

"I can't believe it took us two days to get back here," said Tally as Brightholt finally came into view.

"I can't believe you got your clothes dirty since this morning Tally," said Aoba as she gripped her arm that was currently in a make shift sling. The idea of Tally running around with even a speck of dirt made her cringe, but with her arm hurt there was nothing she could do.

At the head of their group was a depressed Rau. "I can't believe we lost," he admitted.

Sai beating them seemed to hurt him the most as he was supposed to be the closest to him in strength. "Is he really that far ahead of me?" Rau added as he turned back to the pair of girls.

Neither of them was listening. He looked over at Tally who had been playfully skipping along for the majority of the journey. "And tell me again how you're fine?" he asked as confusion spread across his face. For the most part he only suffered a few bruises, but Aoba's arm seemed to be fractured and Tally was now unharmed.

Tally stopped to think. "Well," she said as scratched her head. "It takes some time to prepare, but I can heal myself with my magic," said Tally.

His face contorted from disbelief. "You can heal yourself? With Djinn-Slayer Magic? But you can't heal other people?" He asked, pausing a bit between each question.

"Oh, Rau. Don't worry about something as pointless as that," said Aoba as she elbowed him with her good arm. "If Tally could have healed us, she would have."

Tally had been lost in her thoughts about how the spell worked and couldn't see any particular way for it to work on them. She snapped back from her thoughts. "Yeah. Honest," she said while she shook her head in agreement with Aoba. "I wish I could help you both."

As she finished her statement they passed the Northern gates of Brightholt City into Eternal Knight Territory and immediately heard Master Seigfreid's voice echoing around them.

"And what, pray tell, took you all so long to come back?" Master Seigfreid's voice called out to them from some remote location.

The three mages were spinning in circles looking for him, until they caught a glimpse of him hovering down to them in his signature sitting position. He landed in front of them.

"Master!" yelled Tally as she jumped up to the miniature old man and pulled him into a hug.

"You're up early, Master Seigfreid," said Rau as he took in the sunless Brightholt City.

"Most parents usually wait up for their children when they don't come back home Rau. Jade is waiting for you. He's at the new guild h…" But he stopped talking when he peeked through closed eyes at a wide-eyed Rau taking in the gigantic tree that stood where he figured his home once was.

"Yes. Sir," he managed to say as he slowly walked off with his shock ridden expression.

Master Seigfreid turned back to his mages and prepared to scold them. He shook Tally loose, but withheld his prepared speech when he saw Aoba's state. "Was it Sai?" he asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Yea, but I'm fine master. Nothing to worry about," responded Aoba playfully.

Before she knew it, she was floating in the air. Beside her was Tally cheering. "Yeah, we're going for a ride Aoba," she cheered.

Aoba looked around for Master Seigfreid so she could plead her case. "Master, I'm fine really," she said as her eyes locked onto the tiny man floating them towards the guild.

"I don't remember asking if you all were fine," he said as he floated behind them. "I'll get you both fixed up and then you'll get some rest."

They entered the guild hall and he sat them down on the bar stools by the currently empty bar. He floated up to the second floor and over to the room adjacent to Adrienne's. He knocked on the door very slightly and when it opened, he could be heard whispering to its inhabitant.

"Okay, so we'll see you in a moment," he said when he finished speaking. Then he floated back down and sat with Aoba and Tally.

"I'm sorry it turned out like this," he said after a few moments of silence. "I didn't think it would have turned into a brawl like that, but Sai got back last night boasting about how he had beaten all of you."

He walked over to Aoba and Tally and the old man seemed to be fighting back sadness in his voice when he said "I truly don't like sending anyone on the mayor's missions because of his rules." He hung his head and added "The fact that other guilds can fight each other to finish the mission first is too dangerous."

Tally patted the bald man on the head and said in an equally depressed voice "Master. It's okay. We're fine."

Before anyone could say anything more, a young girl came down the stairs. She was a bit taller than Tally and stood at no more than five feet. Her eyes were a bright honey-green shade and they were framed by long thick eyelashes and black rectangular glasses. Her golden brown hair cascaded down her to the center of her back leaving her bangs to outline her slightly round face. Her skin was a pale color that seemed to be warm. She was obviously flustered at having had to get dressed so early, as she was still putting the finishing touches on her outfit as she descended the stairs. Her white boots had blue trim and she wore a white sleeveless turtleneck with little water droplets designs. As she finished adjusting it, she slipped on her white elbow length satin gloves.

When she approached Master Seigfreid and the girls she was yawning and taking in their condition.

"Oh wow," she managed between a yawn. "You were right to come get me, Master Seigfreid. Aoba's pretty banged up."

He shook his head as Aoba stared at the ground embarrassed at her state and Tally welcomed their fellow mage.

"Good Morning Korianne!" She yelled loud enough for the whole guild to hear. Then when she realized her volume and everyone's expression she half whispered "Sorry. Good morning, Korianne!"

Everyone else shook their head and Korianne inspected Aoba's arm. She moved it slightly and when Aoba winced at the little movement Korianne said. "Yup, it's definitely fractured."

She took a deep breath and focused her magic into her hands.

"Healing Mist," she said quietly. And the air focused around Aoba's arm took on a blue tint.

Aoba felt a slight sting and then slowly the tension in her arm released. When the mist cleared, she stretched her arm.

"Hey, you're getting pretty good at this Korianne," said Aoba as she pulled the smaller woman into a hug.

"Okay then!" yelled Master Seigfreid as he jumped excitedly up and down, the mere excitement infecting Tally and causing her to jump up and down instinctively. As he jumped he said, "Thanks for your help Korianne. Now you two have to get some rest. You've got a tag match in a few days and you're gonna want to be at a 100%"

They ran off towards the steps and Korianne walked over to the bar and pulled out one of her favorite books and began reading.

As Master Seigfreid headed to his office he thanked her once more. "Thanks again Korianne," he said.

"Anytime Master Seigfreid," she responded as she flipped the page.

* * *

><p><strong>October 19, X791, 9:00 A.M, Rosca's Apartment in the Square<strong>

Rosca had already been awake for a few hours. He finished his morning training session and had already showered and prepared for the day. His thought process tended to be centered on training early so he had more time for mischief later on.

He sat in his apartment which consisted of the entire top floor and relaxed for a moment. He had grown tired of the current decorum and was considering changing it. The large room was currently a creamy beige color. Against one wall was a large king size bed with scarlet red sheets. The bed frame was a dark mahogany. He was seated in a cushiony single recliner seat adjacent to the bed and across from his were several photographs of him or rather his mask making different faces. The wall to his left had a built in armoire that held his clothing. It also held the only reasonable entrance to the room as Rosca had the wall to the right taken out and entirely replaced with a window. Just before the window was a spiral staircase that led to the roof. He had a small pool built into the roof for personal use and though his many, many changes to the room would normally be impossible, he had amassed enough wealth from his winnings to cut through most red tape.

But in truth, he had amenities like this just for the sole purpose of having them. They rarely brought him any comfort because only two things truly entertained him anymore. Toying with people and fighting with people. For most people this was the combination of a sociopath, but he had managed to find the right balance. He was just crazy enough to be loved and hated at the same time.

Still, he was bored out of his mind. There were only a few people who would give him a challenge in the coliseum and he didn't feel like fighting them. Then an idea hit him and he jumped to his feet excitedly.

"I'll go play with the little ones," he said.

He made his way down to the square and over towards his guild hall and as he walked towards the door another mage burst forward and ran straight into him.

He looked down at the lady currently stumbling back from him.

"Where are you in a rush to, Marionette?" he asked the young lady.

At the sound of her full name she shot him a glare. Her eyes seemed to be a dark violet shade of purple, but were almost unnatural in appearance. She had shoulder length snow-white hair that fell in tresses that framed her face. Her skin was pale white and like her face was flawless. She had modest curves. Her beauty made her appear to have been sculpted from marble. Her outfit was covered by the trademark Scarlet Phantom's blood red cloak.

"Rosca, I've told you countless times to address me as only Mary. Why do you insist on using my full name?" she said with a slight hint of frustration.

His mask broke into a coy grin and he said, "It seems to irritate you so much. I can't help myself."

She balled her fists in rage and Rosca caught sight of this.

"Oh, are you mad my little play thing?" he asked as he brushed her cheek with his hand. Keeping his hand there he said "So cold. It's as if it's not even..." but he was cut off Mistress Narissa's sudden appearance.

"Go now, Mary," She said coldly never breaking eye contact with Rosca. Mary rushed off immediately leaving them behind.

"Good day, Madam," said Rosca playfully. "Where might you be sending one of my favorite guild members so early this morning?"

"Stop it Rosca," said Narissa as she turned from him and walked back into the guild. "You and I both know you're only here because you're bored."

He looked around at the guild hall as he walked in. Rosca had only moved out because the design bored him, but seeing it again made him feel a bit nostalgic. The dark red tatami-matted floors blended quite nicely with the light peach walls. The guild was designed to resemble an old ryokan inn and as such all of the doors on the first floor were sliding doors. The stairs to the second floor were a simple peach color as well. Towards the back of the guild he could see the bar and beyond that was a large glass sliding door that opened out into a koi pond.

She turned back to him now that they were in the center of the guild. "If you must know, I've sent her to locate Francheska and Madeline."

He thought about it for a long time as if he couldn't remember who those names belonged to.

"Ah yes. I did hear that the ruins expert made it to number 8 in the coliseum," he said as he figured out the first name. "You think I'll get to fight her?" he quickly added in all seriousness.

She shot him a cold look and he moved on.

"Madeline isn't here?" he repeated as endless possibilities of different activities floated into his mind. "What about the rest of your special 3 mages?" he said excitedly hoping they would be gone and he would have free reign in the guild hall.

As if on cue, Sai appeared. "Don't tell me you're feeling left out, Rosca?" asked Sai as he hopped the balcony from the second floor and landed beside Rosca's right side. "You know, you could always lend a hand if you're feeling lonely," he teased.

All of Rosca's excitement vanished as he realized what was sure to follow Sai's entrance. There was a loud thud to his left and he rolled his eyes knowing full well who would be there once he turned around.

To his left now stood a woman who was almost a foot shorter than Sai. Her hair trailed down to her waist in a spiked princess cut. It was blood red and had a single streak of white to the left of her heart-shaped face. She had a cocky grin plastered across her face and behind it sharp fangs could be seen. She was naturally intimidating to most, but just to put them off center a bit more she wore a childish sundress that tapered down to her thighs. It was black with white highlights and around her neck she wore a black collar with white lotus spirals.

"Welcome back, Rosca," she said barely acknowledging his presence. "How nice of our guild's strongest member to show up."

"Hmm. You still upset about being second best, Cerise?" asked Rosca.

"Yea, second best, but she can't even beat Lucia," snickered Sai.

Rosca turned to him also. "You take a lot of pride in being sixth best Sai?" he asked half serious.

Sai's face went blank and Cerise let a small chuckle as Rosca turned back to Master Narissa. He had a bored look on his face. "I see your other two favorite kill joys are here" said Rosca. "I'll be taking my leave before they bore me to death." He turned from and began walking away.

"Don't you want to see what Sai brought back the other day?" asked Narissa coyly as she finished hatching a scheme.

Rosca kept walking away. "I doubt it's anything interesting," he said as he waved them off.

"He brought back a mage," said Narissa.

Rosca stopped in his tracks. He turned his head to face them and he now wore a devilish smile. "A new toy?" he asked curiously.

Narissa smiled back knowing that she was going to be able to kill two birds with one stone. Getting Rosca to be helpful and getting information from the boy that Sai had brought back.

She shook her head and began to explain. "Sai brought back a young man from a mission the other day. He supposedly only spoke once and since then he hasn't said a word. We haven't been able to get any information out of him and as he was the cause for the disturbance in the ruins to the North we can't allow him to roam freely."

Narissa walked to the glass sliding door towards the back and said "He's currently handcuffed in the back by the pond."

She had peaked his curiosity. He walked back to the mages and asked "Well is anyone going to tell me what he said?"

"His name," answered Sai. "He said his name was Aeden Rhythmia."

Rosca burst into laughter and then immediately got frighteningly quiet. "Give me a minute. I'll get him to talk," he said as he exited towards the koi pond.

* * *

><p><strong>October 20, X791, 12:00 P.M, Eternal Knight's Training Ground<strong>

Master Seigfreid stood in the middle of the Eternal Knight training grounds. On his left stood Tally and Aoba. Most of the guild was outside, excited to watch the training session.

Tag-team matches were a new concept as far as the coliseum was concerned. It employed more than just a show of brute strength. The participants had to be clever and creative to win a match.

The makeshift stands encircled the arena. The arena was certainly smaller than the coliseum and since it was planted firmly in the ground, the flooring was just dirt and grass that had been patted down after years of mage training. On either side of the arena was a thirty foot pole.

Adrienne and Alice filed into the stands alongside some of their guild mates and took their seats.

"Where's Lucia?" asked Adrienne. She was asking Alice, but a girl Adrienne had never met before answered for her.

"She's got some business to take care of today," said the girl.

She was fit and her skin was tanned. Her eyes almond shaped which made her amber colored eyes seem warm. Her inky black hair was cut just above her shoulders in a princess style and at the right angle, you could see a scar that seemed to dart across her throat. She had on thin, silver mesh armor under a long white tunic. On the tunic, a jade green symbol comprised of chains was stitched onto the hem, neck, sleeves. On her back was a larger version of the symbol which made it clearer to see. It was an x with each prong on the right side curved inwards like fangs.

She realized that Adrienne was staring at her and said "Oh. My apologies, I don't believe we've met." She extended her hand to Adrienne who responded similarly. "My name is Christina Vaunt. I've been busy lately, so I haven't gotten to introduce myself."

Adrienne shook off her confusion and introduced herself.

"Sorry, I'm Adrienne. It's just… you're really pretty," she said bluntly.

Alice burst in laughter as Christina's face turned red.

Master Seigfried's voice boomed across the training grounds again now. "Is there anyone who would like to volunteer for Aoba and Tally's Tag-Team practice?" he asked. "They've got a match coming up and I want to make sure they're ready."

Almost immediately a young guy jumped from the stands to the side opposite Tally and Aoba.

From across the field Tally could be heard. "Hi, Rory!" she screamed to ensure that her voice would reach him and the rest of Northern Brightholt.

The young man stood a little under five and a half feet tall. He had a mop of dark brown hair and green eyes. His pale skin was flawless except for the freckles over the bridge of his nose and scars along his arms and neck. He wore a brown, fur-lined hooded jacket over an orange t-shirt, along with brown trousers and dark green shoes.

"Hi, Tally!" he yelled back just as loud and then quickly grew silent from embarrassment when he realized everyone was watching him.

"Is there anyone else who is willing to help out today?" asked Master Seigfreid.

Adrienne looked around and when she was sure that no one would, she stood up to volunteer.

As she stood though, the doors to the guild burst open and a guy around her age walked out and took his place alongside Rory.

"Ahh, thank you, Vincent and Rory," said Master Seigfreid as he floated over to them.

The man master Seigfreid called Vincent was much larger than his combatants. He stood over six feet tall and possessed the physique necessary to intimidate his enemies. He was slightly tanned and his eyes were an icy blue color. His hair was a spiky black mess and on his right arm was a birthmark that resembled a pyramid of some sort. He wore a sky blue shirt under a dark blue hooded coat. Loose gray pants held up by a black belt and black laced boots. He usually kept the pants tucked inside the boots and on his left hand's middle finger he wore a silver ring.

"Who is that?" asked Adrienne as she took her seat again.

"That's Vincent Reyes. He's a sweetheart. He's so sensitive, but he tends to get embarrassed at the slightest thing," said Alice. "Oh, he's also ranked eleventh in the coliseum."

"Eleventh?!" asked Adrienne. "Isn't he way stronger than all of them?"

"Come on Adrienne," said Alice as she shook her head. "If this was a match of brute strength, then the master certainly wouldn't have allowed it."

"No problem Master," said Vincent. "So what are the rules today?"

Master Seigfreid returned to the center of the training grounds and his voice amplified again.

He pulled two flags out of his pocket. One black and one white. "The winner will be decided by whoever can place their flag on the opposing team's pole."

He floated over to Tally and Aoba and gave them the black flag and then gave the white flag to Vincent and Rory.

He flew towards the stands where his guild sat and yelled, "Begin!"

Vincent had the flag and shot off towards the post.

On his left Tally shot past him with her own flag, never glancing his way. He turned to stop her, but was met with a right hook from Aoba's sharpened sleeve. He got back up to his feet and was met with a barrage of punches. The first few caught him off guard, but eventually he realized he could keep up with her speed. He caught both of her arms and threw her into the air.

Then he jumped up towards the top of the pole. As he got close to it, his whole body was entangled in a web of strings.

"Shear!" yelled Aoba as the strings tightened. Then using her momentum from her descent she pulled the strings and sent him crashing down towards the ground.

Tally had been engaged in combat with Rory and his drakes since she reached their side of the arena.

Rory's magic allowed him to summon drakes and at times channel their magic.

Currently he had a drake named Sylvan and a drake named Palentir summoned.

They were both no more than the size of an average dog, but the size granted them a dexterity that was dangerous in battle. They resembled dragons. Sylvan had sandy brown scales with light green streaks, and pink eyes and Palentir had silver scales with blue spots and golden eyes.

Rory himself was channeling another drake named Halcyon which game him his greatest close combat offense.

"Howling claw!" he yelled as he slashed at Tally and three blades of wind sliced at her.

He kept up the barrage and she dodged them all easily until the drakes began a combination attack to drive her back.

Palentir created a shield and tried to ram her. Sylvan was attempting direct attacks.

Tally dodged the shield and was met with Sylvan tackling her.

She stood her ground and caught hold of it.

She hit it with her Violet Djinn Slayer's Wing and the punch incapacitated it.

She darted towards the pole, but Rory was too concerned with Sylvan's condition to stop her.

Palentir flew in front of her and blocked her path.

She gathered the magic within her and unleashed "Violet Djinn Slayer's Hymn!" she yelled and the drake was blasted aside.

The confrontation bought Rory a few seconds to compose himself and launched an attack at Tally.

He quickly built up his magic used "Whirlwind Cleaver!"

A fierce wind began slicing at Tally. She tried to use her own breath attack, but was caught up in the wind and sent flying into the empty stands across the arena.

Vincent had already returned to the offensive and Aoba was trying her best to keep him at bay and buy time for Tally to secure their flag.

He built up his magic. "Light Devil's Rage!" he roared unleashing a torrent of light magic at her.

This was the third attempt to hit her with this spell. Each use would be dodged by Aoba and followed up with him making a jump for the top of the pole. Then she'd yank him back down.

She was getting tired and eventually he'd hit her. She needed to end this now. An idea occurred to Aoba.

"Sorry Vincent!" she yelled out to him. "I'm gonna end this now."

She ran forward and the devil slayer readied himself. He was in shock since he never figured that she'd try and fight him directly.

As she got close to him, her movements seemed to triple and in an instant she was behind him.

He looked over his shoulder in shock, and then smiled after checking himself and finding he was uninjured.

"You scared me for a moment Aoba, I almost…" But he stopped as every thread in his outfit came undone and he was in nothing, but his underwear.

She pointed her finger at him and smiled. "Striptease, Vincent."

The young man's face went red and he kneeled to the ground to hide himself and scrape up the threads to his clothes.

"Oh, come one Aoba! I thought there was a rule against that!" he yelled.

"Not in a tag- match," she sang.

"Couture de Affûtée"

Her clothes sharpened again and she nailed him with an uppercut, knocking him unconscious.

She took their flag and then ran to Tally's aid.

Tally had returned to the battlefield and was preparing to go toe to toe with Rory again.

As he prepared to use another spell, Aoba appeared and entangled him in her threads.

"Go place the flag Tally! I've got him!" she yelled as she struggled to hold him in place.

Tally jumped up to the top of the pole and placed the flag.

"We won Aoba!" she cheered as she jumped down.

"Aoba and Tally win!" declared Master Seigfreid. "Vincent and Rory, good try today."

The doors to the guild opened again and a tall man with tan skin ran out. He was wearing black jeans and boots, but was currently shirtless. He had a muscular physique, but his body was covered in scars. His black hair was in a short pony tail and his eyes were a dark brown.

"Master," he said sternly. "The coliseum sent out a blank match invitation."

"Do you want to participate, Marco?" asked Master Seigfreid.

Everyone from the guild had already run over to the group on the grounds.

"What's a blank match invitation?" asked Adrienne.

"Sometimes the coliseum has to cancel a match and to replace it, they send out these invitations in secret to four mages. If two people accept then, the match is set. The catch is, that no knows who their opponent is until they show up," answered Alice.

"Why is that a bad thing?" asked Adrienne.

"Well, you could accept and then fight someone entirely out of your league," answered Christina.

"I'll be accepting it. It'll be a good warm up for my match against Javier," said Marco.

* * *

><p><strong>October 20, X791, 2:00 P.M, Nova Eos Tree Hall<strong>

Master Jade was sitting at a table with Junjo, Shaw, Rau, and Javier.

"You all know who your opponents are. So there'll be no surprises," said Master Jade. "But I think you should all make an effort to visit the coliseum. You never know when your opponent might be in a match and it'll give you a chance to scout them a bit better."

"Right, I heard there was supposed to be a match today," said Junjo. "Maybe we'll get lucky and one of our match ups will be having a match."

The group bid Master Jade good bye, got up to leave and headed towards the coliseum.

"You know what? You're right, Junjo. Maybe we'll get lucky and you'll get to see your match up in a fight today. It'll probably do you some good," said Javier before he whispered, "Since you lost to Alice."

The group broke out into laughter.

"Oh come one guys," said Junjo fighting back his own laughter. "Did you see that thing? Who would have thought someone so tiny and cute would have something so terrifying behind them?"

"Literally, everyone who has ever paid attention to her fights would know, Javier." Added Rau.

"Yeah, Yeah. She probably would have beat me even if I did know," said Junjo. "How could anyone hit a lady?" he asked between laughs.

* * *

><p><strong>October 20, X791, 2:30 P.M, Coliseum Main Arena<strong>

The Lacrima Referee was announcing mages as Javier, Shaw, Rau, and Junjo took their seats.

"We have one participant who decided to decline," said the referee. "Today's match will only be a triple threat."

"From the Scarlet Phantoms, we have Number 18, Fuyumi Tanaka!" it roared as she entered wearing her usual tutu and took her place.

"That's two already, no chance that any of the top ten show up for this fight," said Junjo.

"Also from the Scarlet Phantoms, we have Number 10, Sou Tsubaki!"

The group of mages burst out in laughter. "You better be taking notes, Junjo!" they yelled over the crowd.

Sou Tsubaki was tall, well-built young man with fairly light skin. He had Spiky black hair, and dull blue eyes. He wore a black, leather jacket that had a fur collar and white V-neck underneath. He had on dark blue, denim jeans that were held up by a simple brown belt, with a silver chain attached from the belt to his back pocket. He wore a silver ring, a silver chain with a black skull and black shoes.

"Lastly, from the Eternal Knights, we have Number 7, Marco Seifer."

The crowd went silent for a brief second and then erupted again.

Marco walked into the arena having now donned a blue short-sleeved shirt.

The Nova Eos group looked at Javier who seemed to have taken a new interest in the match.

The referee began reciting the rules.

"There is a ten minute time-limit, but the last mage standing wins," he said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Down in the arena Marco was trying to have a conversation with Sou.

"How are you, Sou?" ask Marco. He leaned a bit to his left and looked at the young girl wearing a tutu behind Sou. "And how are you, Fuyumi?" he quickly added.

When neither of them answered he asked "So is this going to be a handicap match?" asked Marco earnestly.

At that Fuyumi jumped out and snapped at him. "Are you saying that the Scarlet Phantoms have to resort to such a low down method to win this fight?" she shot out. "You'll be done away with soon enough and then Sou and I will have our own match."

"Is that a yes?" Marco asked, confused.

"Enough!" yelled Sou. "Begin the match referee."

"You May Begin!" shouted the referee as he darted into the air.

"Shadow-Make: Wolf Pack," said Sou as he molded several wolves into creation.

The wolves darted towards Marco and he jumped backwards to avoid their initial attacks.

As he landed he found himself not in the arena, but in a forest seemingly floating in the air. In the distance he could hear Fuyumi's voice saying "Twisted Wonderland!"

He was trapped in an illusion. Slowly multiple gashes appeared on his body as the wolves that he could no longer see or hear tore into him.

"Shadow Make: Gatling Gun!" yelled Sou as he complete the formation of miniature gun and began firing bullets of shadow at Marco.

Up in the stands, the Nova Eos mages commented on the fight.

"This is sad," said Rau. "How is Marco outclassed by Fuyumi so easily?"

"That's just it," said Javier who was presently confused. "If there was one person this shouldn't work on it, it should be Marco."

They watched on as Marco stood in the arena and took blow after blow.

"Ha!" teased Fuyumi. "If that's how strong he is, then him being number 7 must be a fluke!"

"No Fuyumi, he's messing with us," said Sou. "Get serious already Marco!"

"You want me to get serious Sou!?" yelled Marco.

"What!?" yelled Fuyumi. "Did he just answer you? There's no way he can hear you from within my illusion."

"I didn't want to hurt Fuyumi's feelings since she's just a kid, but I'll get serious," said Marco.

He closed his eyes and knelt to the ground, touching the ground in front of him. For a moment he could feel his pulse throughout the arena, he could hear everyone's heartbeat and every breath they were taking and then he whispered.

"Sound Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Echo Night."

He was behind Fuyumi in an instant and very quickly and swiftly he hit her neck to knock her unconscious.

Sou turned around and continued firing shadow bullets, which Marco mostly dodged. Several shots managed to him as he put some distance between he and Sou.

Sou directed his wolves at Marco and then disappeared into the shadows beneath him.

As the wolves converged on him, Marco built up his energy and released it in a roar.

"Sound Dragon Slayer's Roar!" he yelled. With his mouth as the epicenter the air pulsated violently around him and the wolves dematerialized.

Sou fell out of his shadow and into the arena again.

"Are you ready Sou?" asked Marco as he walked towards Sou. "I think I let you get a few too many hits in," he said looking at his wounds.

He built up his magic quickly and released a simple spell.

"Sound Dragon Slayer's Echo Punch!"

The punched connected with Sou's jaw, but he felt the reverberations throughout his entire body.

The referee came down and examined the two Scarlet Phantom Mages.

"The Winner is Number 7, Marco Seifer!" he yelled.

"I thought I was supposed to take notes," said Junjo with a straight face as he watched Javier's jaw hit the floor.

"All I saw was a preview for your match, Javier," Junjo managed to tease before joining in on Shaw and Rau's laughter.

* * *

><p><strong>October 20, X791, 2:30 P.M, East of Brightholt<strong>

Mary had been traveling non-stop since she left the guild and just over the hill ahead of her, she could see Francheska and Madeline walking back.

She reached them and she was out of breath.

"Madeline… Francheska, Mistress Narissa wants you to return immediately," she said as she caught for air.

Both women shot off immediately leaving Mary behind. Mary realized she was left alone and ran to catch up to them.

When she finally managed to fall in line with them she asked "Don't you want to know why she called you back?"

"I figured you'd tell us on the way, but what's imperative is that we return," said Madeline.

"Right," said Mary. "Well, Sai finished his mission in the ruins up north and returned with the culprit for its disturbance."

"Get to the point Mary," said Francheska coldly.

"Of course," said Mary. "The prisoner has only said his name so far. He's remained quiet since. He says his name is Aeden Rhythmia."

Francheska stopped running first. Then Mary and Madeline doubled back to see why she stopped.

"Francheska. We have to move fast. Why would you stop?"

Francheska was pale, but she shook off the feeling she had in her gut and broke off at even greater speed towards Brightholt City.

They ran for hours until they found themselves on the Scarlet cobblestone path leading up to the guild.

Francheska burst into the guild first. "Where is he?" she asked out of breath. She got a few confused nods, from her guild members before Master Narissa came inside from the koi pond.

"Francheska Rythmia. I do believe I have someone you'd like to see," said Master Narissa. "He's been a much better house guest since he and Rosca began talking."

Francheska didn't care. She knew what those words meant, but was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to care. She pushed past her Master and into the back of the guild and saw him.

She tried to speak, but couldn't form any words as her tears began pouring down. She ran past Rosca and straight at Aeden punching him as she tackled him from his seat into a hug.

He was too in shock to speak either and began crying also.

Rosca turned to take his leave and stopped at Master Narissa. "Isn't it nice when families get along?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

_**Special Thanks:**_

Special thanks to Raiyane

Special Thanks to each and every one of you reading. I've been at this for a little over a month and it's been enjoyable because of you all.

The coliseum match was a courtesy of Barrett M107. So thank you to him as well.

**How's it going?**

I want you all to be completely honest with me about anything that comes to mind. If you have an idea or a critique or I'm messing up your character, please let me know and we'll work on it.

If you ever find yourself curious about when a chapter is going to be released, the tentative date will be on my profile.

Favorite Fight so far anybody?

So when I started writing this story, I picked out a few numbers. Each number corresponds to a review number. The first number on that list was 31 and Barrett M107 gave the 31st review. So he got to choose from a few prizes. There's a few of these numbers picked out. So if you wind up landing on one, you'll also get an in-story prize.

So big news I guess. While this arc is still not finished, on my profile are now 3 possible arcs and there descriptions. I would like you all to vote in a poll to decide which arc should come next after this arc finishes. However, before I put that poll up, there will be a poll that holds some relevance to the whole story. That'll be up today and be closed in a about a day, so your vote on that one is important. When that closes, the poll for the next arc will open. That'll stay open for a while so you can just check back in I guess.

I realize there was some confusion because of a mistake I made. This arc isn't over it's got a few more chapters left. If that affects your vote in some way PM me about it.

Also, if you didn't know this arc is called "Welcome to Brightholt". So welcome…

_**Entirely Unrelated**_

I've been thinking about starting a side fic, but I want your opinions on it. Please be completely honest, I won't be offended in anyway. Let me know if you think I should do something entirely different or a new Fairy Tail story or if you think I should never write another story after Brightholt Chronicles. I swear I won't take offense. I just want to gauge who'd be interested in another story.

**S-class openings update:**

S-class positions are closed

**OC Submissions:**

All Eternal Knight Positions are closed. I'll also only accept a few more mages for both Nova Eos and Scarlet Phantom. After that, every submission will be a mage joining the guild at a later point in the story.

I'd prefer to get submissions from people who never submitted before. But don't be afraid to send me an OC if you come up with one.

**Special Submission:**

**Djinn Slayer**

I'll be closing submissions for Djinn slayers the end of 1/18. If you need the information or rules for it message me. The winner will get messaged shortly after.


	6. Scarlet Pride

**Author Note**

I just wanted to say how grateful I am to all of you reading this. Thank you for the support.

* * *

><p><strong>October 22, X791, 9:30 P.M, Town Square<strong>

The citizens of Brightholt stared quietly as a procession of mages clothed in red cloaks proceeded through the square and towards the coliseum. There was a sense of awe and fear as the people of Brightholt watched, what appeared to be the entire guild, make its way through the square. Scarlet Phantom prided itself on being superior to its counterparts and as such, their loss earlier in the week required a show of strength. Master Narissa had prepared the coliseum's main event tonight as a means of reminding Brightholt of their strength.

The entire guild had been on their best behavior as a means of avoiding Master Narissa's wrath. She stood at the helm of the procession and while it wasn't rare for her to be seen at the coliseum watching her mages, today was a special day. Two Scarlet Phantom mages were going to be competing in a one on one match as a gesture from the guild to the town.

Behind her, marched a quiet Madeline. "Mistress Narissa?" asked Madeline with curiosity lacing her voice. "Why doesn't Francheska have to be at the coliseum tonight?"

Without stopping Narissa said, "She and her brother were only just reunited. I won't be asking much of her for the time being."

Her words shocked the Scarlet Phantom mages around her and when she realized their surprise she turned to them. "What!" she yelled.

"Nothing, madam," said Madeline.

The guild entered the coliseum and took their place in the stands around the main arena. Across the arena in another set of stands sat a few members of the Eternal Knights. Aoba and Tally sat in a row in front of Alice who sat between Marco and Adrienne.

"Tell me again why we came to see a fight between two Scarlet Phantom mages," said Aoba pausing between every few words to yawn.

"We were gone for so long, I thought it might be fun to watch a match," responded Tally. "Plus, Marco said it'd be a good idea to watch these two. Isn't that right Marco?" asked Tally as she turned to Marco.

Before he could speak Alice answered for him. "If what I heard is true, then everyone who isn't S-class should be interested in this fight."

"Really! How come?" asked Adrienne excitedly, before she was interrupted by the lacrima referee coming down to the arena.

"Good evening!" His voice boomed. "Tonight will be an exhibition match. It was sanctioned entirely by Scarlet Phantom. Both fighters are also from Scarlet Phantom. Some last minute inspections are being done on the arena, but the fight will begin momentarily."

"Both fighters are from the same guild," said Adrienne confused. "I don't understand. Who does that help?"

Marco thought for a moment. "It helps Scarlet Phantom. It's just another way of Master Narissa displaying her guild's strength. If she makes a close pairing for the match, then the fight will have to be intense and the she'll pull more followers."

The four girls sat dumbstruck.

"What?" asked Marco as he struggled not to break into a smile. "It's just a guess."

The referee returned to the arena. "We're ready to begin!" he yelled causing the crowd to hush instantly.

The arena elevator opened up and began rising; on its platform stood a man with short spiky brown hair. He was tall and above his right eye was the Scarlet Phantom mark. The man wore a black t shirt and khaki pants. He had on a dark red overcoat that came down around his knees. His sneakers were red and white and on his waist was a sheath that held both of his swords.

The referee held his right hand up to introduce the man. His voice boomed through the arena once more. "Number 13, Achilles Nexus!"

The crowd went wild.

"That's impressive," yelled Adrienne as she competed with the crowd. "He must be pretty strong."

"Yup!" yelled Aoba. "As a matter of fact, if he made it to thirteen this cycle, then he would be the strongest mage who wasn't S-class."

The other elevator opened up and Achilles' opponent came out of the ground.

She was a young woman. She stood almost a foot shorter than Achilles around five and a half feet tall. Her waist and frame were small, but her slim build gave her the appearance of modest curves. Her complexion was fair and she had a kind of eccentric beauty that's allure was unavoidable. She had short black hair with blond bangs that framed her face. A single black lock broke through on the right. Behind her bangs were large dark blue eyes whose gaze seemed to pierce through her opponent. From afar, two small silver hoop earrings could be seen her left ear. She was wearing a rusty red, sleeveless shirt. There was a large, faded Scarlet Phantoms symbol on the bottom left of the front. On top of that she wore a black jean jacket that had the sleeves ripped off and only fell past her chest and a pair of tan jeans that have a few tears in. She had on black canvas shoes, a fingerless glove on her right hand and an arm sleeve covering her left elbow.

"Camryn Xanthia!" announced the referee.

"Wait, did he forget her rank?" asked Adrienne back in the stands.

"Nope," said Tally with a huge grin on her face. "Cammie is usually busy helping her mom in their family store so she doesn't compete too often." She placed a finger over her lips as she thought a bit more on the topic. "Usually she's just outside of the top ten, but she probably missed too many fights for this cycle."

"So unofficially, this is a match between the strongest non S-class mages," added Alice.

The referee completed all of the match preparations and announced that tonight's arena would be Earth element based. The arena began to shift and simple pillars of rock and earth broke free from the ground throughout the arena. They stood a little over 10 feet high, but there were enough to litter the entire battlefield.

The referee shot into the air and yelled, "Begin!"

The arena shook as both mages clashed immediately.

They retreated when neither gained ground. Achilles drew his swords in each hand and behind Camryn a circular glyph took shape.

"Glyph Magic: Load!" she yelled as 30 charges encircled the glyph.

"What type of magic is that?" asked Adrienne.

"Camryn charges pure magic into those thirty ticks around the glyph," said Marco. "Then she uses them for a bunch of different attacks."

Camryn took a look at the pillars around her and then burst out in laughter. "Hey, Achilles!" she yelled across the arena. "They didn't really do either of us a favor with the arena tonight."

He shook his head. "Nope, I was just thinking the same thing. But unfortunately for you, I don't see this hindering me much."

"Fair enough!" she yelled back. "Glyph Magic: Energy Salvo!"

The 30 charges began reverberating and then the glyph disappeared as one by one they shot off at Achilles.

He darted to his left through a row of pillars and the charges veered towards him. As they homed in, he cut corners around pillars to force the charges to collide with anything but him. From behind him, Achilles could hear minor explosions as the charges collided.

The homing charges forced him to stay mobile and lose sight of his opponent. But as he weaved his way through the pillars, he could hear Camryn charge again.

"Glyph Magic: Load!" She slid out from behind a pillar and above her right arm floated the glyph once more. "Glyph Magic: Burst Strike!" she shouted as aimed a punch for Achilles.

Without losing any speed, he ducked under the punch and slid past Camryn sending her target-less punch into a pillar.

He turned to face her now and his magic flowed into his swords. "Bullet Hell!" he said as he began stabbing the air.

Each stab sent off magic shockwave bullets at Camryn.

Now on the defensive she darted through the pillars for cover.

"You know better Camryn!" yelled Achilles. "Cutting Wave!"

The energy built up around his swords once more and then he slashed with each of them. The wave cut down pillar after pillar as it made its way towards where Camryn might have been.

"Glyph Magic: Glyph Shot!" 15 tick marks converged into a single blast and then shot off at tremendous speed. It collided with the wave in the center and both spells canceled each other out.

Camryn took note of the ten charges currently loaded as she scanned the arena for Achilles, then from above her she heard him.

"Sword Burst!" He landed just behind her and pierced the ground with his swords. His energy began pumping into the ground.

In an attempt to prevent the damage she was familiar with, Camryn darted towards him.

The remaining 10 charges dissipated as she loaded her next spell above her right arm. "Glyph Magic: Overcharge Strike!"

A wave unleashed from around Achilles at shot off in every direction. Camryn's fist collided with the wave.

The two forces struggled to gain ground on each other once more until ever-so-slightly, Camryn gained the upper-hand.

"Wow, I think she's gonna pull it off," said Adrienne with a hint of awe in her voice.

"Yeah," said Marco. "But I've fought Camryn a few times, that spell is only supposed to take 5 charges, she used ten just now."

"Is that bad?" asked Tally.

"I don't know. I hope not" said Marco.

While Camryn was gaining ground, proloning this clash would be pointless. In an effort to get past this spell, she pushed through it with more determination. She punched through the wave, dispelling the attack. There was a slight tinge of pain and she could feel her right arm aching.

Achilles had spent countless hours fighting. His mind was a steel trap when it came to a battle. He was never one to miss even the slightest hint of weakness. He picked out the strain on her right arm and moved to capitalize.

Once more energy flowed into his swords. He darted in front of the injured Camryn and hit her with the hilt of his sword in her stomach. With her doubled over gasping for air, he dealt a kick just above her right elbow sending her flying into a pillar. "Oh come on Camryn. To think, you're a Scarlet Phantom," he said emphasizing each word. "If you've grown this weak, then there's no point in fighting you anymore. It won't prove anything."

She was on her hands and knees gasping for air as he walked over to her.

"Hmm. No this won't do, I was told I'd get a serious fight if I volunteered," he added. He thought for a moment on how to get her angry and then it occurred to him. He'd have to get a bit mean, but if it meant proving that he was one of the best then he didn't care. "Maybe you and your mother should just lea…"

"Glyph Magic: Double Load!" yelled Camryn as two glyph each with 30 charges appeared on both her right arm and her left arm. "Even as a joke Achilles. You went too far," she said calmly.

"Glyph Magic: Burst Frenzy!" 10 charges disappeared from each glyph and then each limb was coated in energy. She burst off toward him and began her assault, an endless barrage of punches and kicks.

Achilles tried to block each blow with his swords as best as he could, but it proved to be too great an effort.

She had worn him down and when she was sure she had broken him down enough, she dispelled the magic on her arms and legs and loaded another spell. Both glyphs dissipated as all 20 remaining charges focused into a central point.

"Glyph Magic: Glyph Shot!" she yelled as she fired at point blank range.

When the blast cleared, the arena's pillars were all in ruin. Achilles lay defeated.

The referee came down and examined the two Scarlet Phantom Mages.

"The Winner is Camryn Xanthia!" he yelled.

The arena had been silent, but erupted as the match came to a close.

"Got it. Mothers are a soft spot," said Adrienne.

* * *

><p><strong>October 23, X791, 11:30 A.M, Eternal Knights<strong>

Lucia was awake in the guild hall. She had been up for hours and was excited to share her newest exploit with Christina. Both women had grown close after Christina made it to S-class as Lucia was initially the only S-class woman in the Eternal Knights. She heard footsteps and a smile broke out across her face. She turned to see Christina stretching and breaking out of a yawn.

"Morning Lucia," she said in a tired sing-song voice. She reached the bar that Lucia was seated at and went behind the counter.

After rummaging through a few cabinets, she pulled out a bowl and a box of cereal. The front of it had a mage dressed in robes and a wizard hat.

"I keep telling you," said Lucia. "That sugary death trap is going to kill you someday."

"Give it a rest," groaned Christina. "You know that Wizard Runes is my favorite cereal."

She poured the cereal out and when only a few bits of sugary dust and one mini rune shaped marshmallow fell into the bowl, she grumbled. "Ugh. Fine. We'll do it your way," said Christina. "Let's go out for breakfast."

They got on their clothes and headed out the door. Instead of making the usual turns down into the town square they headed off towards an Eternal Knight shop.

After a few minutes they arrived outside a building where their guild's flag hung. The blue roofed building had a gray and pale blue stone exterior. There were navy blue double doors made of wood and just above where the Eternal Knight symbol flew, was a sign that read Firewall Inn.

"Mr. Basil still makes the best linguini in town," said Lucia as she pushed past the double doors.

They were instantly greeted by the aroma of different kinds of food and drinks. It was pleasant.

The first floor of the building was a lobby which had white and dark blue paneled walls, with royal blue tapestries lining them, close to the ceiling. The floor was made of a dark brown wood, but there was a huge blue rug in the middle of it. On it was the mark of the Eternal Knight's guild. To the east and west of the entrance were two areas that both had three, soft, overstuffed love-seats surrounding a white, wooden coffee table. Each wall behind the area had a dark blue bookshelf that reached the ceiling. They were packed with books of all sorts of different languages. There also seemed to be different types of souvenirs from all over the world hanging from the walls. Directly in front of the door was a counter, where an elderly woman sat.

"Good Afternoon Ms. Edna," both girls said in unison to the old woman squinting to see who was talking to her. Her eyes were a shade of bright green and surrounded by endless wrinkles and freckles. Her hair was cut into a short bob and pulled back so her face was clear. Her hair was a pale grayish-orange color that matched her freckles. Her nose was big and round and her ears were large. Her lips are thin and wrinkly. She was currently slouched over the counter.

She wore a simple white duster-styled nightgown that touched the floor, pink and blue polka-dot sneakers, and a dark blue robe that was tied tight around her and was really fluffy.

When she smiled back, Lucia asked if the restaurant was open.

"Yes, dear. Basil should be preparing lunch right now," said Edna in almost a whisper.

Lucia and Christina turned to their immediate right walked through the doorway hidden by a royal blue cloth with the Eternal Knight's guild mark on it into the inn's restaurant. There was a decently sized eating section with a bunch of white tables each with four dark blue chairs surrounding them and menus set up on them. The restaurant area had white and dark blue paneled walls as well and plenty of souvenirs decorating them. There were a few small, dark blue shelves lining the walls framed photos of exotic places. The floors were a simple dark oak. The bar was furthest from the door, and behind it was the kitchen where a man could be heard singing as he cooked.

" , is lunch ready?!" Christina yelled.

An older gentleman with fiery red hair parted on the left side poked his head out of the kitchen.

"Oh, Christina! Lucia! How nice of you to come for lunch!" he yelled over his stove's loud roar. "I'm finishing up some linguini and then I'll take your orders.

"You never disappoint, . We came for the linguini," said Lucia as she and Christina took a seat at a table closest to the kitchen.

"Hohoho. That warms my heart girls. It'll be right out," he laughed.

"Sooo," said Christina inquisitively. "What'd you want to show me?"

Lucia perked up immediately. "You know how I was away the last few days."

She paused for Christina to nod her head.

"Well, , the guy who runs the antique shop, caught wind of the location of a treasure he thought I might find interest in." She had her hands under the table as she spoke as if she was looking for something. "He had a previous client who had sent him a request for help with a job and he gave me the heads up on it because the reward was something I asked him to stay on the lookout for," she said.

Lucia's face lit up even more as she slammed a key ring down on the table. On it held an assortment of her trademark ruby keys and several gold keys. Countless hours with Lucia told Christina something was different about her keys. It took a few moments, but she saw it.

"Another spirit!" she yelled.

Lucia's face had a permanent grin. "Yup, meet Ruby Key 6," she said as she held up her newest key.

Christina was busy counting in her head. "That makes 9 keys," she said as she shook her head in disbelief.

"Yup, I've got 5 keys from the Ruby series and 4 silver keys," she said happily.

Christina's head hit the table. "That's it," she said depressed. "I'll never catch up."

"Oh come on Christina. You're plenty strong. As a matter of fact, don't you have a ranked match coming up soon? You wouldn't be in one if you weren't."

"Yeah, easy to say for you, number 2. There's just so much space between 9 and 2."

"You've just got to stay focused. Maybe next cycle you should challenge Francheska for her spot. That'd be a good improvement," said Lucia.

Before Christina could get another word in, Mr. Basil burst in the doors.

He was carrying a tray with two plates of linguini. "Here you go ladies, two plates of linguini."

Mr. Basil was an average sized man. The photos on the walls showed him in his glory days. Young, fit and muscular. But now he was a simple, happy man. He had round pot belly and a strong square face with a narrow nose, dark lips and chubby cheeks. He had his mother's bright green eyes and fiery eyelashes that came to a curl at the tips. His chalky white skin was covered in freckles. He wore a white button up, a long-sleeved shirt with a collar, a fiery red bowtie, a white chef's hat, dark red slacks, black loafers, and a dark blue apron with the guild's symbol on it.

"Thanks Mr. Basil," said both girls happily in unison before they began eating.

"Not a problem," he laughed. "It's on the house. No worries and tell Master Seigfreid I said hello," he added as he walked back into the kitchen laughing.

"I'll talk about how I plan on catching up to you later," said Christina through a mouthful of linguini. "Right now, all I need to know is right here on this plate."

* * *

><p><strong>October 23, X791, 12:00 P.M, Scarlet Phantom. Outside Mistress Narissa's office<strong>

"Wow Fraulein. You've been busy," said Aeden.

He was talking to Francheska. They were currently awaiting Master Narissa's verdict on whether or not Aeden could join the Scarlet Phantoms. Francheska had spent the last few days talking about all that she had seen and learned. He questioned her about how strong she had become and she discussed the coliseum and the guild's success and her place amongst the elite mages of the city.

The door to Master Narissa's office opened and Madeline stepped out. "Our mistress will see you now. She returned to the office and took her place beside Master Narissa. She motioned for Aeden and Francheska to take their seats on the opposite side of the desk.

Aeden broke the silence first. "So what's the verdict? Can I stay or are we leaving."

The entire room shot him a look of surprise and then Master Narissa broke a smile. "I like you kid, but don't push it," she said.

"I already told you," said Francheska. "I'm not leaving. You're my little brother. I've only just found you, so you're staying here with me."

"It's nice that you can vouch for him Francheska," said Master Narissa plainly. "But what's the proof that he is a Scarlet Phantom quality mage?"

"You don't think I can cut it, lady," stated Aeden.

On instinct, Madeline raised her hand to retaliate.

"Don't move Madeline, let him be for now."

'Yes madam," she said coldly. "But I do believe such insolence warrants reprimanding."

"You can't be serious Madeline," shouted Francheska.

"Enough!" yelled Master Narissa. "This back and forth is giving me a headache. First you're going to tell me how you got separated and then you're going to show me why you should be allowed to walk in my halls."

Francheska began, "Aeden and I were born into the Zankers Guild by our parents. We were often alone growing up because other kids were too soft to play alongside us. We were shunned because of our brute strength. As time went on, our parents began to train us in our ancestral magic. Brawler magic."

"Right," said Aeden as he decided to go along with the story. "Francheska was the first, but unfortunately, her body never seemed to grasp the elemental preparation training. See our bodies are able to carry certain perversions of the elements in the world. When our clan reaches a certain age, they would go on a pilgrimage to all of our temples, perform a ritual and if our body could add that element to their personal collection, then they would grow in power. However, Fraulein couldn't complete the elemental preparation and she left the guild in search of her own power. In the time she was gone, I successfully completed two rituals. Wind and Steel."

Francheska resumed her part of the story, "While I was gone, I delved into our clan's archives. I found word of an elemental shrine that had been cast aside for true masters. For only at the end of their pilgrimage can a user of Zänkerichbin magic approach this shrine. They use their soul as collateral and wrestle with whichever unique demon the shrine spits out. I decided to bet my life on winning that battle and after years of searching I found it without completing the pilgrimage. I won that battle and the shrine turned to dust. Apparently, the legend goes every time a master subjugates a demon the shrine returns to the earth to prepare another."

"But she wasn't given the welcome she deserved," said Aeden as he fought off a few tears. "With no master having been able to control that element in decades, her appearance brought jealousy and resentment. No matter how my family argued for her, she was exiled. In her exile, my guild was attacked and everyone, but me was killed. When I awoke I was surrounded by the dead. With no record of any other shrines or Francheska's location I left in search of her and the strength necessary to defeat any dark guild I come across."

Francheska was in tears now. "But I came back. I came back and found people mutilated and vaporized. I buried the guild that cast me aside." She turned to Aeden now. "I thought I buried my family that day, but you're here now."

Francheska turned to Master Narissa now. "Please, Mistre…"

She was cut off before she could finish pleading. "I understand," Master Narissa said flatly. "Madeline, get this young man a guild mark and we'll announce our newest addition."

"Yes, Madam," said Madeline and a few minutes later she returned with the guild stamp. "Where would you like your mark?"

Aeden held out his left arm and pointed to a spot just below his elbow. "Right here is perfect," he said as his sister pulled him into a hug.

* * *

><p><strong>October 23, X791, 12:00 P.M, Town Square<strong>

After having been gone for a series of jobs across Fiore, Vado was pleased to be home. He strolled through the square and was quite pleased with how happy his city.

Then a sour thought crossed his mind. "If only that damn eyesore wasn't hindering my view," he cursed at the coliseum.

"Screaming at no one Vado?" said a voice behind him.

Vado turned around to find Kenneth Snyder and Melody Stanz.

"Ahh. Some sensible people at last; the lovely Melody and gallant Kenneth." Vado towered over the pair of Nova Eos mages. "What are you two up to?" he asked.

Melody answered quietly. "We just came from Magdalena's and were headed back to the guild."

"Right," said Kenneth. "We had planned on practicing a bit, but there are a few mages who've taken up training day and night for their ranked matches coming up soon."

"Oh, lord," said Vado. "Not everything is about that damned coliseum."

He was pacing back and forth in anger. "Sometimes it feels as if we're second class citizens just because we don't participate in the coliseum. You know, going on missions is far more dangerous than a bloody arena match."

"I don't know Vado," said Kenneth. "Some of those matches get pretty dangerous."

"No, not you too Kenneth," said Vado as he shook his head. "You've got to stay strong, man."

He was shaking Kenneth by the shoulders now. "You've got to remember all of the good we do on missions and jobs instead of just pretending to be a gladiator."

Kenneth and Melody were holding back giggles. "I've actually considered joining the coliseum recently," said Kenneth.

Vado fell to his knees in defeat. "No, say it isn't so. Tell me he's joking, Melody."

"He's serious Vado. He's been getting in practice time whenever he can in case he decides to join during the next cycle," she whispered to Vado.

"Noooo!" yelled Vado as he jumped back to his feet. "I won't accept! What good will come from joining the coliseum?"

Kenneth thought for a moment. "Well for one, it's a good way to practice and pass the time. The regular jobs don't pay as much and aren't exciting. Until I hit S-class it might be the best way to become a better mage. And plus, I might even join the new tag- team league if I can find a decent partner in Nova Eos."

Vado racked his brain for a solution and then it came to him. "Come on an S-class job with me."

Kenneth and Melody broke out in laughter. Then they both said in unison, "Did you forget that we're not in the same guild?"

Vado's face turned into a sly grin as he could finally see the light at the end of his own personal nightmare. "I can sponsor you. Lucia did it a while back with Hazel before she was S-class. As long as both guild masters sign off on it, you can come along with me on a mission and I'll only step in if it's really necessary."

Both of the Nova Eos mages stopped laughing. "You're serious?" asked Kenneth.

"I'm entirely serious. You'll get all of the excitement, I'll keep an eye on you and we'll all walk out of this with a reminder of why missions are more rewarding than playing gladiator." He thought a bit more and added. "Hell, I may even put up a notice around town for other regular mages to join in. Give me a few days and I'll try and convince all three guild masters."

"Um, wow Vado. Thanks a lot man," said Kenneth as he stood in shock.

Vado's mind was already lost in planning. "Not a problem, I'll keep you posted and in the meantime check around for any other mages who might be interested in coming along!"

He was already running back towards the Eternal Knights territory when Kenneth asked Melody, "You think we'll actually get to go on an S-class mission with someone from another guild?"

"I don't know," said Melody quietly. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

* * *

><p><strong>October 23, X791, 12:00 P.M, Firewall Inn<strong>

Edna waited at the reception desk for any patrons to come in. It was odd that anyone would come looking for a place to stay at this time of the day, but she didn't really mind waiting and relaxing. She wasn't the spitfire she was in her younger days.

The front door opened and a tall young lady walked in. Her eyes were a lively orange that clashed with her platinum blonde hair. It fell to her waist and was layered with bangs that covered her forehead and barely let her eyes escape. She wore gray skinny jeans that were tucked tightly into black leather ankle boots. She had on a white leather belt and a skin tight orange tank top that showed off a generous amount of cleavage. It was cut short and showed off a bit of her waist and her flat stomach. She wore an unzipped dark red leather jacket with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. On her right leg was a brown thigh holster which carried a large combat knife. Her skin was a light tan color and when coupled with the curvy figure she possessed, one could see how her looks would pull men from every corner of a room.

"Well. Hello dearie. It's nice to see a new face in town. What's your name?"

The young lady smiled. "I'm Chel D'Amour," she said with a hint of pride. "I actually just got to town and when I passed by I smelled the food from outside."

"That's lovely dear. The restaurant is right through that door," Edna said as she pointed at a doorway. "But, if you've just gotten to town, you might need a place to stay. We also have beds up above in the inn if you want."

"Sounds good. I'll think it over after I eat," said the young lady as she walked through the restaurant entrance.

Chel walked into the restaurant and spotted Lucia and Christina. "_Oh, I might be able to make a quick buck_" she thought to herself. She walked past them towards the bar and asked Basil for a drink.

She was eyeing Lucia and Christina as she sipped her drink. Years of life on the road had given her an ability to read people. She knew the best way to entice Lucia was just by looking at her. If she sat here long enough and just stared at her, Lucia would eventually snap.

A few moments passed and then Lucia could be heard throughout the entire building. "Can I help you!" she yelled.

Chel decided to play innocent. "Who? Me?" she asked, quietly pointing at herself.

Lucia stalked over towards her and slammed her hand down on the counter. "Who else!?" she yelled.

Chel had her right where she wanted her. "I'm sorry, miss," she stammered. "I… I didn't mean to offend you," she sniffled before continuing. "Honest. It was an accident."

Lucia's scowl broke instantly at the girl's tears. "Oh, no no no no. It's my fault. I misunderstood. I thought…"

From behind the kitchen door Mr. Basil's voice could be heard. "Lucia, I hope you're making our guest feel welcome!" he hollered from somewhere deep in the kitchen.

"Yes sir!" she yelled as she tried to calm down the weeping Chel and silence the laughing Christina. "Shh… shh," she pleaded as if Chel were a small child. "Look, I'll pay for a few rounds of drinks to make up for it."

"Really?" she sniffled. "You'd do that for me? That's so sweet," said Chel as she burst into tears of happiness.

"Yes! I'll do it. But you've got to promise no more tears okay?" pleaded Lucia.

"Ok, I'll be a big girl," said Chel as she slowly stemmed her tears.

Lucia put some money down on the counter for her meal and for Chel's drinks. She grabbed Christina and darted for the door.

"Thanks, kind lady!" yelled Chel to Lucia as she burst out of the inn.

When Chel was sure she was out of sight. Her smile broke into a devilish grin. "Too easy."

A few moments later she could hear a few more voices enter the inn and then Javier, Junjo, Shaw, and Rau walked into the restaurant.

"Tell me again why we had to come all the way here, just for food?" asked Rau.

"You don't understand they've got the best linguini in the city," said Shaw in a decrescendo as he caught sight of Chel.

The group made their way over to a table and Mr. Basil walked back out with a menu.

"What'll it be boys?" he asked.

"I'm having the linguini," said Javier.

"Same," added Rau.

Mr. Basil waited for Shaw and Junjo.

He figured out what they were stuck on and cleared his throat. "Boys, if you're gonna order, then order. But if you plan on staring and drooling then you might as well go over to the bar and ask for her name."

Shaw and Junjo snapped from their senses and caught each other's gaze. They jumped towards the bar, throwing each other down when they got the chance, until both of them tumbled into a seat on either side of their mystery woman.

"Hello there, I'm Junjo. You can call me Jo."

"But more importantly I'm Shaw and who might you be?"

Chel waited a moment and then as sheepishly as possible she said, "I'm Chel D'Amour."

"Ah, the name of a goddess," said Junjo with stars in his eyes as he kisses her left hand.

"You must be of royalty," said Shaw kissing her right hand.

"Boys, I need at least one hand for my drink," she said with a hint of seduction.

They both quickly let go.

"You're both sweet, but I just got out of a bad relationship and I just want to relax and take life one day at a time," said Chel.

"I can take things one day at a time!" yelled Shaw.

"Stop lying!" yelled Junjo. "You're always planning ahead. I'm the one Master Jade gets mad at for never having plans!" He turned his attention back to Chel and raised his one eyebrow as he said "We could spend every day doing whatever we want my dove."

Chel forced a giggle. "I'll tell you what. How about we play a game, the first person to win two games gets to go on a date with me, but every time I win, one of you pays for my next round of drinks."

Shaw and Junjo looked at each other and at the same time yelled, "Deal!".

"What type of game is it?" asked Shaw.

"It's a card game," she said as she pulled out a deck of cards from her pocket and pulled them over to sit at a table. "I'll place the deck in the middle of the table and we'll each take turns drawing a card. Then the other two will guess what suit the card is. When they guess, the cardholder will show their card. Whoever guesses correctly wins and if it's a tie, we repeat it."

After the first two rounds, Shaw had one win and Junjo had one win.

Mr. Basil walked out with two plates of linguni for Javier and Rau who had long since finished crying from laughter.

But as they finished their meal and the rounds dragged on, neither Shaw nor Junjo could win another round.

"How can she win 10 games in a row?" asked Junjo.

"Lady's luck boys," said Chel.

Mr. Basil came out to see if they had made any progress and to handle the bill when he finally caught wind of what was happening. His adventures had brought him into contact with many people, hustlers were no exception. Unbeknownst to the mages in his restaurant he went into the kitchen and called Seigfreid. He explained the situation and awaited his arrival.

A few more rounds passed and Chel remained undefeated, but neither boy looked set on giving up. Then Master Seigfreid and Master Jade walked in.

"This is what you're doing instead of training?" Jade's voice boomed.

Both boys stood up immediately. "No, we were taking a break to get food and we just lost track of time," stammered Shaw.

"Javier and Rau have been back for a half an hour," said Master Jade. "If you were more in tune with your training you'd see she's been hustling you."

Chel was in the process of sneaking out when she found herself unable to pass through the doorway. "Young lady," said Master Seigfreid. "You won't be weaseling out of this."

He turned to Master Jade and wished him luck with the three people before him before disappearing into the kitchen with Mr. Basil.

"How could she have been hustling us?" asked Junjo.

"Tell them your magic," demanded Master Jade.

Chel sighed at the thought of being caught. "I can control different emotions with waves of energy. In a subtle dose, I amplified your desire to win and actually made you lose."

"Both of you go home now," said Master Jade.

Without an argument they exited out through the kitchen.

"Now you sit down and stop trying," he said to Chel.

Her eyes went wide and she sat. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Don't play dumb. You've been trying to alter my emotions since I arrived,"

Chel bit her lip at her futility.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna have you arrested," he said much to her surprise. "I may not like your methods, but for you to have been able to pull that off with no one, but Mr. Basil recognizing your magic, is impressive. You have a gift and I won't be the one to snuff it out by throwing you in prison."

"So what are you going to do with me?" she asked.

"I've got an offer for you," he said. "I would like you to join Nova Eos. If you decline, then you're free to go on your way and continue living life the way you live it now, but if you agree then I and my guild will welcome you into our home as a part of our family."

Chel thought over the life she had lived up to this point. The family she wasn't sure she'd ever see again and those she was sure were gone. Maybe it'd be nice to stay in one place for a while she thought. "Deal."

* * *

><p><strong>October 23, X791, 2:00 P.M, Eternal Knight's Guild<strong>

Master Seigfreid was sitting at the bar in the guild hall working on what he considered to be a top secret mission. Currently, he had Tally on the prowl throughout Brightholt looking for the best ingredients possible and he was gathering the best within the guild hall. The doors burst open and Tally ran straight towards him.

"This is going to be the best ice cream sundae ever!" she squealed.

They spent the next few moments layering giant bowls with all sorts of ice cream and treats and then they sat down at the bar and took out two giant spoons. It only took a few moments, but they had devoured both of their sundaes and were now sitting at the bar, with their heads in their hands.

"It was good while it lasted, Master Seigfreid," said Tally as she fought back tears.

"Gone too soon. Gone too soon!" cried Master Seigfreid.

The front doors burst open once more and in walked an Eternal Knight mage who had been away on a mission for quite some time.

"Shion!" yelled Tally as she raced to embrace the young man in a hug.

He was an average size for a teenager, but his physique always seemed slightly feminine. Despite being a teenager, his face and voice remained child-like. He had one hazel eye and one eye which resembled a kaleidoscope. His brown hair was tied back in a pony-tail and his bangs were kept out of his face with a butterfly clip. Shion wore a yellow vest with a white dress shirt and black pants. He also had on black sneakers.

"Nice to see you too Tally, but could you bring the master down? Someone says they have to see him immediately."

"Oh, that's no problem," said Tally pointing to the bar. "See the master's already…"

She lost her train of thought when a goliath sized man walked into the guild. He must have been close to 9 feet tall and had a couple hundred pounds to his credit as his large muscular frame barely fit through the door way. He had on brown cowboy boots with loose fitting green GI pants tucked into them. The pants were connected to heavy steel shoulder pads with black suspenders. At his side he had a metal helmet. His eyes were a calm green and he himself was bald. His Fu Manchu mustache tapered down the sides of his mouth freely.

"Gimon!" yelled the master happily as he flew over to the mages. "What are you doing here?"

"So you do know each other?" asked Shion as he tried to comprehend his tiny master being friends with the giant.

The man called Gimon explained that Shion had been on the job and they came across one another and decided to work together. When he asked Shion about his guild and Shion described Master Seigfreid, Gimon decided to come meet him.

"But how do you two know each other?" asked Tally.

"When I was younger, I crossed paths with Gimon on a journey, much like Shion did. We worked a few jobs together on the road."

"Wait, how old are you Gimon?" asked Tally.

He seemed to have to think for a few moments. "I'm 48?" he asked aloud.

Master Seigfried began laughing and floated up to eye level with the giant. "So you're still wandering about after all this time?

"Yup," said Gimon. "When I realized where Shion came from, I decided I'd tag along and now that I've been able to find you again old friend. I was wondering if I could stay."

Master Siegfreid's face broke into a cheesy grin. "Gimon, nothing could make me happier."

* * *

><p><strong>October 24, X791, 6:00 P.M, Coliseum Main Arena<strong>

The elevator was ready to take him up, but Sou Tsubaki knew that there was more pressure riding on this match than just his rank. He had been embarrassed by Marco and another failure would bring a wrath down on him that he was sure he couldn't imagine.

Sou kept replaying his master's words in his mind. No mistakes. No mistakes.

He stepped onto the elevator and was lifted into the arena. The crowd exploded around him. Across from his waited Junjo Rosario, the man attempting to take his position in the top ten.

The lacrima referee came down between both men and announced the match rules.

"Ladies and Gentleman, the match type has been determined as Three Times Fallen. The winner is decided when their opponent has been knocked to the ground three times. Referee, you may begin whenever you're ready."

"Challenger, Junjo Rosario, are you ready?"

Junjo took a deep breath. "This is what I've been training for. Let's do this."

"Number 10, Sou Tsubaki, are you ready?"

"Let's begin," he said.

"Mecha Take Over: Mortar Chamber!" yelled Junjo as his chest rematerialized and he fired off several rockets.

"That won't work!" yelled Sou angrily. "Shadow-Make: Wall"

Each rocket crashed into the wall and when the dust cleared Sou was untouched.

"You'll have to do better than that!" He taunted. "Shadow-Make: Gungnir!" yelled Sou as his shadows took the form of a spear. "Shadow rain!" He threw the spear into the air and on its descent it exploded into miniature shadow pellets.

The pellets crashed down on Junjo as he failed to avoid all of them.

"Look alive, Junjo," said Sou as he closed the distance between them and slashed at him with his reformed his spear sending Junjo to the ground.

This forced the referee to come and inspect Junjo and see if he was willing to continue. "Challenger, Junjo Rosario, are you fit to continue?"

He jumped to his feet. "Yeah, I'm good. I'll have it even in no time"

The referee yelled "Point to Sou Tsubaki. Resume!"

Junjo rematerialized 6 more rockets and fired them.

"That won't work! Shadow-Make: Wall," yelled Sou.

Several of the rockets crashed into the wall, but 2 diverted and purposely missed on either side.

The explosion caused Sou to retreat to avoid damage.

Junjo had already jumped above him. "Mecha Take Over: Beam Tangent!" His arms reformed into a metal a barrel and a laser fired down on the unguarded Sou.

It pummeled him into the ground.

The referee inspected Sou now. "Number 10, Sou Tsubaki, are you fit to continue?"

"Out of my way. I'm fine," he said as he got to his feet.

The referee yelled "Point to Junjo Rosario. Resume!"

"Shadow-Make: Wolf Pack!" yelled Sou as he summoned the wolves and reformed his spear. He hurled the spear at Junjo and it separated into shadow pellets again.

With no means of dodging all of the attacks Junjo attempted to match Sou's firepower. "Mecha Take Over: Double Gatling"! His arms rematerialized into gatling guns and he unleashed on everything before him.

The bullets canceled out each pellet and pierced some of the wolves between them.

When the shadows cleared, Junjo was nowhere to be seen.

"Mecha Take Over: Mortar Cannon!" yelled Junjo as he descended on Sou from up above.

With no time to dodge, Sou recalled the wolves and had them take the brunt of the damage.

The debris cleared to show both Sou and Junjo on the ground. They struggled to their feet and the referee halted the match.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" he yelled. "Both participants were simultaneously downed just now. The match score is now 2-2." He checked to see that both of them were ready and allowed them to resume.

"You're looking kind of tired Junjo," said Sou as he struggled to breath.

"You know Sou. You're not looking so great yourself."

Sou thought for a moment. He needed to win this match and Junjo was putting up more of a fight than he could have thought.

"I've got a deal I'm sure you'll be interested in Junjo. Both of us. One final attack and whoever is left standing is the winner," said Sou.

Junjo broke into a smile. "Sounds fun. Let's do it."

They both built up the remainder of their energy and poured it into their attacks.

"Shadow-Make: Gatling Gun!"

"Mecha Take Over: Double Gatling Gun!"

For the next few minutes, countless bullets from either side hit each other in a non-stop hail of fire. But as the fight between these two men raged on, Junjo gained ground and with the crowd egging him as they became seemingly more aware of it he gained ground faster and faster.

"Shadow-Make: Wolf Pack"Sou sneakingly unleashed a pack of wolves. Junjo moved to dispel the wolves and was left wide open.

The barrage of shadow bullets crashed into him and he was knocked to the ground for the last time.

The crowd was silent.

"Match point, Number 10 Sou Tsubaki!" called the referee. The medics entered the arena and carried Junjo out on a stretcher.

Then there was a cheer from the crowd and they erupted in excitement.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

_**Special Thanks:**_

Special thanks to Raiyane

Special Thanks to all of the readers. If I haven't told you yet, I appreciate you all reading, reviewing and subscribing more than you'll ever know.

Special Thanks to Xy-Guy for the Rythmia family.

Special Thanks to Qyresh and MyDearWatson for checking to see if I was alive.

Special Thanks to The Imposter for all of their help as well.

**How's it going?**

I want to apologize for taking so long to rewrite chapter 6. I got through most scenes pretty quickly, but the first fight scene just never came out the same way again and took longer to get close to where it was before. Plus, I'm decently tech-savvy, but I don't think it's possible for anyone to have the amount of trouble I had.

I just want to remind you, that unless it's directly related to a story line or the match-up is a dead give-away (In which case I do speak to the creators), all coliseum match winners are randomly generated. This applies to rank matches as well. Please don't hate me if your character loses a match. It's not like I'm just flipping a coin, but it's all up to luck. Oh and in advance, please don't tell me that you believe your character's magic should have easily defeated another character's magic. Keep in mind, someone somewhere put work into that magic, just like you.

"You're always thanking Raiyane." That's cause she's always helping… haha.

I thought this was obvious, but the guild marks for the guilds are all in the cover photo. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

How would you all feel about the idea of an inter-guild team? Maybe only for a mission or maybe for longer, it's clear though that at least one S-class mage has to sponsor the mission.

I want you all to be completely honest with me about anything that comes to mind. If you have an idea or a critique or I'm messing up your character, please let me know and we'll work on it.

If you ever find yourself curious about when a chapter is going to be released, the tentative date will be on my profile.

OC submissions are closed for this arc. They will re-open after the next arc begins. However, I'll have a cap on how many mages will be accepted during this arc. The number will be different for every arc. Please read the sections on my profile called "OC Positions" if you're interested in submitting an OC to any story.

The next arc was chosen. Look on my profile for the name of the arc that won.

_**Entirely Unrelated**_

So I took everything you all said into consideration. I will be starting a side project. I had plans for a One Piece story, a Bleach story, a Fairy Tail story, and an Akame Ga Kiru story. I had originally decided to leave it up to you all. But, with all of the delays I had, I was able to narrow it down to two different ideas. Both of these ideas will be started at some point over the course of the next few weeks. However, the OC submission process for these will be a little different. There will be more details on my profile for everyone interested. If anyone who is familiar with the manga/anime for these options could message me and tell me what you think of the ideas I have that would be greatly appreciated. Or if anyone has any questions in general feel free to message me about it. Thanks to everyone who continues to support my writing.

**S-class openings update:**

S-class positions closed

So all mages henceforth would be joining the guild or would be a regular member.

I'd prefer to get submissions from people who never submitted before. But don't be afraid to send me an OC if you come up with one.

_**Chapter Release Event**_

I've revealed all of the top ten mages at some point. Most have had their number stated blatantly, others vaguely. This is kind of long. No hard feelings if you don't participate.

Which ten mages make up the top ten in the coliseum?

_**Release Events Rules**_

The first person to list all ten correctly receives a prize.

Then I'll PM the winner.


End file.
